The Heir
by doomsdaypreppergirl
Summary: Willow Potter is used to being second to her brother. That is, until she learns that she's a witch and is placed in Slytherin. Now Willow is an Heir, and is somehow more connected to Voldemort than Harry could ever be. If someone could tell her what that means, or what that entails, that would be great. Until then, though, she'll just wing it.
1. Origin Story

**Authors Note: **

**This story marks the return of my writing after a good 4-ish years. I had been working on it for a couple months before I got up the courage to post it.**

**This story was one that I had wanted to read about, but since I couldn't find one that seemed to satisfy me, I decided to start my own! **

**I hope you enjoy Willow's journey and, by extension, my journey as we go through The Heir together.**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

**_October 31_**

James Potter closed the door as Sirius and Remus left, smiling over at his wife who was holding their two children, Harry and Willow Rose. Born at the same time, they looked almost exactly the same, alabaster skin, silky raven hair, and green eyes. Harry's eyes were a bit duller that Willow's but still just as beautiful and Willow had so much magic running through her that her skin took on a bluish undertone. That's where their similarities ended. Their personalities were both very different. Harry, born first, was loud and curious. He absolutely loved being the center of attention. Remus, the sweet old werewolf, and Sirius seemed to live to spoil him. Willow, however, was practically Harry's opposite. Never one for attention, she would often refuse to be picked up or even coddled. She was surprisingly independent for a one-year-old child. She never really cried and was concise about what she wanted or needed.

James recalled an instance when Willow had grabbed one of her favorite books, handed it to Remus, and then just sat there. She wanted him to read it to her and it took him a moment or two to realize that. In fact, James remembered, she took the book opened it, and handed it back to Remus as if Willow was showing him what she wanted. She was nothing if not tenacious.

When Lilly stood up to take the children to bed James took a moment to admire his wife. Her red hair was up in a messy bun, and even though her green eyes betrayed how tired she was they looked at him with love. They smiled at each other for a brief moment. She walked up their wooden stairs and James slumped into their worn gray couch, basking in the quiet and serenity. It was at that point that the door blasted open. The door, flying off its hinges made way for a cloaked man.

Voldemort.

Panicked, James yelled to alert his wife. He lunged towards the other end of the couch where his wand lay in an attempt to grab it. It was too late. The green light hit him and James was dead before he even touched his wand. Voldemort stepped over the man in disgust, some great wizard James Potter was. He was a fool. They were lulled into a false sense of security by Dumbledore.

_Anyone who put any faith in that manipulative old man was a fool_, Voldemort thought to himself. His black cloak swirled around him as he walked up their stairs. A feeling of triumph coursed through him at the thought of being so close to getting rid of the one thing that could possibly stand in his way.

He hoped Lilly was smarter than James, at least for Severus's sake. He had promised Severus that he would try to spare her, and he would do his best, especially for loyal followers like him. He walked up the stairs only to find the nursery door barricaded.

_She didn't have her wand either it seems_, Voldemort thought incredulously as he blew through this door as well.

Wood shards went everywhere and the furniture that held the door was as good as gone. _To go anywhere without the core of their power was ridiculous._ He looked over at Lilly. There she was, in front of the children, eyes wide, and looking as if she'd charge him at any moment. He scoffed and he rolled his eyes. He didn't have time for this.

"Stand aside girl, you'll be spared as long as you hand over the children." She shook her head violently, red hair moving rapidly and green eyes filling with tears.

"Please! Not them, not Harry or Willow. Kill me instead."

"I'm only going to ask once more, stand aside. If you do, I'll be merciful and let you live." That was a good deal, he was showing mercy. This was something of which he was not known for.

"No, I won't," tears streamed down her face, "There must be another way. Not Harry, not Willow, Ple-"

The green light hit her before she finished begging.

It was really too bad. She was good with magic, but apparently a fool, just like her husband. He looked into the crib and shuddered in disgust. That little boy, Harry, was screaming. It grated on his nerves. It'd be so easy to kill him right now.

_However..._

He could wait Voldemort decided. He turned to look at the tiny girl as she use the bars of the other crib to stand up. She looked at him with interest in those bright green eyes. They glowed and the color swam in her irises like a spell. In fact, they were the exact color as the spell that he just used on her parents. He leaned closer, until he was face to face with the child. He refused to touch her.

He hated children, and it was laughable that one of them could cause his demise. Willow, it seemed, had other ideas. Avada green eyes met his red ones and she reached out a chubby pale hand and touched Voldemort's face. Too startled to move, he stood still and was taken aback when she laughed. Would she laugh if she realized that he had just killed her parents? Her laughter had died down some, but she was still smiling when she reached for the wand he was holding.

He wouldn't kill her, he decided, not today anyway. She was far too intriguing. Killing her would be a mercy, those orphanages would be terrible. He was not one for mercy. So she would live.

_I'll keep a close eye on you though, Willow Rose_.

She fascinated him, even as a small, helpless child. The prophecy was another issue though. Voldemort pulled away from Willow and turned to Harry. He stared at the still screaming boy, unimpressed. He pointed his hooked wand at the boy and cast the spell with the purpose of stopping that ridiculous prophecy in its tracks. Two things happened simultaneously as the Avada Kedavra hit Harry. Voldemort collapsed, dying, and Willow Rose was hit with the remnants of what seemed to be Voldemort's soul. She cried out as it hit her shoulder and neck, and watched accusingly as the nearly dead man disappeared.

A couple of hours later found Dumbledore looking at the children incredulously. It admittedly took him a minute to process the fact that neither child was dead. In fact, Harry was unharmed except for the lightning shaped scar on his forehead. Dumbledore paid no mind to the other child as he picked Harry up to ensure that the Boy-Who-Lived was alright. From the other crib, green eyes stared at him accusingly, almost as if the owner couldn't believe that he was just ignoring her, the other orphaned child.

He continued to hold Harry as the rest of the Order showed up. The headmaster had decided that the best course of action was to send them both to Lily's sister, Petunia and her husband, Vernon. They loved Harry, and hopefully would be willing to take Willow as well. Minerva McGonagall showed up first, followed by Alastor Moody, and Rubeus Hagrid, the latter pulling up in a bike that had some room to put the two children. Dumbledore explained the plan and McGonagall became increasingly disgruntled, unsure if this plan had any merit at all.

"What about Willow?" she asked, worry laced throughout her tone, "will they accept her? I know the Dursleys like Harry, but they hate magic. To have two magic children in their house…"

Everyone heard what she left unsaid.

Minerva watched as Dumbledore stroked his long white beard, seemingly in thought. To everyone's astonishment however, Dumbledore waved her words away, telling her, and the rest of them, not to worry. Everything would be fine.

McGonagall narrowed her eyes but trusted the Headmaster and didn't press the issue.

She would later regret that decision.


	2. The Reptile Room

Willow abruptly woke to the sound of Dudley banging on the door to her cupboard.

"Its my birthday!" He yelled as he continued his assault on her poor door.

She reached for the cord to her light, struggling a little in the dark and yanked it when she finally found it. Willow let out a groan as she was washed with a dim yellow light.

She cringed as she heard Dudley run up and down the stairs above her little cupboard causing drywall to rain down on her. She gained enough energy to get out of her bed and stand, though she couldn't straighten up all the way unless she wanted to bump her head against the slanted ceiling.

She huffed in exasperation as she pulled on Petunia's old blouse, a faded purple monstrosity that she seemed to swim in, and a pair of jeans that were equally as ill-fitting. She looked into the mirror that Aunt Petunia had placed in there for her as she finished getting ready. She watched her reflection as she tucked the blouse into the jeans and belted the jeans as tight as they could go. She leaned closer into the mirror to inspect her face.

There was more banging on her door, however this time the voice that was yelling at her was Uncle Vernon. Realizing that she took too long to get ready, she quickly braided her long black hair and rushed out of the room.

Walls of a garish peach followed her as she walked through the hallway toward the dining room. However, instead of walking into their normal dining room, she was greeted by a mountain of presents sitting on the table. She scoffed when she saw that there was barely enough room for the Dursleys to sit and eat.

Willow walked past the table full of presents, trying very hard not to be bitter. Who was she kidding, she had every right to be bitter, especially considering she got a toothbrush for her birthday the year before. The moment she walked into the kitchen she was accosted by Aunt Petunia shoving a cookbook in her face. She took the book and started flipping through noticing that pages upon pages were marked. Willow's eyes widened, there was no way that they expected her to do this _herself_.

"Our little Duddeykins wants a feast for his birthday and you're going to make it for him." Petunia leaned in closer to Willow to whisper in her ear.

"And if it's not perfect," she continued, "you'll be locked in the cupboard for months. Are we clear?" Willow nodded her head.

"Crystal clear Aunt Petunia."

When Petunia left her side she glanced at the book in despair as she set it on the kitchen counter. _There's no way I'll be able to cook all of this,_ she thought to herself. _Luckily, they'll be gone most of the day, so if I do mess up, they might not notice._

After much deliberation, Willow decided that it would be easiest to make the cake first, she could make the other dishes as it baked and cooled. She began to gather the supplies and ingredients. Willow rummaged through the fridge and she closed the door to see Harry standing there.

"Hey," she said hesitantly.

He was just standing there looking at her.

"Are you going to be able to make everything?" He asked curiously, his green eyes looking over the kitchen, his eyes widening at the sheer amount of marked tabs in the cookbook.

Willow sighed and gave Harry an unsure smile.

"I guess we'll both find out when you guys get back."

She knew she was going to stay home while they went to celebrate Dudley's birthday. She always did, even when her and Harry's birthday came around. They would go and celebrate Harry, but never her.

"Too much of a freak," the Dursleys would tell her. While Harry never said anything to agree, he never denied it either. He never really did anything to stop any sort of abuse. She didn't really blame him, he was being treated just as well as Dudley, and they both knew that if he protested in favor of her he would lose his good treatment. That didn't mean that she didn't feel hurt and betrayed by it.

At least he brought her scraps of food when the punishments got too bad, but he didn't do it often and that resulted in Willow being extremely skinny for her age.

Her punishments were harsh and reoccurring, especially considering the fact that things tended to… happen around her. She never did anything on purpose, and it wasn't anything bad, usually. However, when she let her emotions get the best of her, things tended to happen.

She remembered losing her cool and screaming at Dudley and the next moment the kitchen lights exploded. The Dursleys saw it happen, she had gotten angry and BAM! The lights went out and glass went everywhere. She had gotten two months in the cupboard for that. She had also acquired a pretty nasty scar on her leg that same night. Uncle Vernon had gotten so angry that when he threw her into the cupboard she hit the corner of her small dresser so hard that she managed to get a huge gash on her leg. She had to take care of it herself, and as a result the scar that came from it was huge and hideous.

Like most other things though, she adapted. She had a mask of indifference that she put on when dealing with the Dursleys. This prevented most incidents, considering they only happened while she was too emotional.

Willow began to mix the cake, getting lost in her thoughts, and ignoring the fit that Dudley was throwing over his birthday presents. At least she was until Aunt Petunia came back into the kitchen after leaving to answer the phone, white as a ghost. Willow set the mixing bowl aside, curious as to what could have shaken Aunt Petunia so badly.

"That was the sitter," her aunt said to Uncle Vernon her voice trembling,"Sh-she has the flu, and can't watch Willow."

Willow watched Vernon's fat face turn an ugly shade of puce and Dudley screamed out his denial.

"No, she can't go, she'll ruin everything."

He continued to scream for another hour as Petunia attempted to find a last minute sitter. The screaming from Dudley and the last ditch attempts by her Aunt didn't do them much good, considering an hour later found the Dursleys, Harry, and Willow packed into the Dursleys' car on their way to the zoo.

The drive to the zoo was awkward to say the least, but no matter how many insults Dudley threw under his breath or looks that Petunia or Uncle Vernon gave her, Willow refused to react in any way. She wouldn't dare mess up arguably the best day of her life thus far, and thus the ride was there was excruciatingly tense.

When they arrived at the zoo Willow noticed that another person was going to celebrate Dudley's birthday with them, his friend Pierce. Willow groaned inwardly and wanted to fade into the background. Aside from Dudley, Pierce was the one who picked on her most. Dudley was a whale, but Pierce was no stick either, so whenever they gained up on her there was a lot of weight and force behind each punch or kick. Thankfully, the presence of Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon and the zoo itself was enough for no one to pay her any mind. She liked it like that, at least, if she was in the background she was safe.

They all lined up to grab their tickets. During the wait Uncle Vernon roughly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her aside. He bent down so he was eye to eye with Willow.

"No funny business. If anything happens," he growled "anything at all, there'll be no meals. Until. Christmas. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Uncle Vernon." Her voice was soft, not wanting to bring some sort of wrath against her for whatever reason.

They walked through the zoo and Willow made the conscious effort to stay two or three exhibits away from the rest of the group. It wasn't that hard, the Dursleys and Pierce liked to go through the animals, but she enjoyed reading the plaques and signs about each animal. They saw the big cats first, Harry and Dudley loved the lions, but to Willow, they weren't all that impressive. They went from there to the African animals, then the primates, which Willow enjoyed thoroughly, and so on. She was really enjoying her day. It only got better when Harry decided to split the ice cream that he had with her. It was plain vanilla with chocolate syrup, but at that moment Willow had never had anything more delicious in her entire life.

Their last stop was the reptile room. As soon as Willow stepped into the building, she let out a sigh of happiness. After the heat outside, the cool air conditioning felt nice, not to mention the dimmed lights made her feel at peace. She was able to clear her mind and breathe in the sense of calm that the Reptile Room gave off. Dudley, Harry, and Pierce went straight to the big snakes and lizards. They did stop occasionally to look at the more poisonous snakes. Willow, however, was content to go to each exhibit and read about the different reptiles. She ignored Dudley as he yelled at one of the snakes, trying to get it to move. He even brought Uncle Vernon to try to get it to move, resorting to banging on the glass.

Willow roller her eyes and went through the smaller snake exhibits before getting to the big ones. She took the time to read each information panel and made an attempt to find each of the reptiles. She probably spent a good five minutes searching for the chameleons in their enclosure. Her favorite of the small snakes was a bright green grass snake that practically preened at the attention that Willow was giving it, moving around the branches of his little fake tree.

"That's the most I've seen that snake move in the past couple days." Willow turned to face the voice as it chuckled.

It was one of the zookeepers, Willow smiled at the lady and talked to her about the snakes. The zookeeper, Peggy, talked animatedly about each of the snakes and Willow listened carefully as they talked about proper care for the snakes and the temperament of each snake. When they ended their conversation, Willow had a whole arsenal of snake facts to remember.

She continued her snake odyssey and the next snake that she walked up to was the larger snakes that the zoo had, a Pit Viper, or at least that's what the plaque said.

"You're such a beautiful girl, aren't you?" Willow cooed.

The snake was bright green in color and, even though she wasn't as large as the Boa that Harry was looking at, she was still quite large. The sign by her enclosure read six meters.

"You're quite big too, I bet most people find you scary." Willow's eyes widened as the snake made eye contact with her and winked.

"Can you... understand me?" she asked the snake incredulously. The snake nodded in response and slithered closer to the glass.

Dudley noticed that the snake was moving and yelled at Pierce and Harry to come look at it. Once the three of them reached the enclosure, Dudley resumed his assault on the glass, pounding on it and yelling at the snake. Willow sighed and shook her head.

"I'm sorry about them, you probably get that a lot, don't you? Does it bother you?" The snake nodded and rolled its eyes.

"You don't deserve that."

Willow was able to ignore the yelling, but Dudley came over in an attempt to see the snake better.

"Move out of the way!"

He pushed Willow over and leaned in with his face pressed up against the glass. From the floor, she sent a glare over in Dudley's general direction and watched in shock as the glass from the enclosure disappeared and Dudley fell in. Willow had to hold in her laughter as the glass appeared again after the Viper took the chance and left the enclosure. It slithered around, heading for the door, only to stop by Willow. Willow propped herself up on her elbows and looked at the snake.

"Thanks for freeing me," the snake hissed. Willow blinked.

"You're welcome."

The snake nodded its head at her as a goodbye and made its way to the door, and slipping out when it finally opened, leaving a trail of panicked visitors in its wake.

After a good thirty minutes of panic, scrambling, and crying on Dudley's part, the zookeepers finally got him out of the enclosure. They profusely apologized as we were escorted out of the zoo. Aunt Petunia was paler than usual and shaking. This only made the owner of the zoo apologize even more.

"We have no idea how he fell in. The glass was there before and after he fell. The Zookeepers said it was like magic." The owner laughed nervously.

The owner was a short, skinny man, and seemed to be very intimidated by the sheer size of Vernon Dursley. It would've been funny to Willow had he not practically signed her death warrant. The moment he said that Uncle Vernon leveled a glare at her. Vernon Dursley already had an idea of who to blame, but the owner's comment sealed it for him.

The ride home was excruciating. Everyone was silent, and Willow noticed that anytime Uncle Vernon looked at her in his rear view mirror his face turned a nasty shade of purple. Other than that, Uncle Vernon held everything in and was surprisingly calm during the drive back to Number 4 Privet Drive.

That was a good sign, sort of, in Willow's mind. If he stayed calm during the drive, her punishment might be less harsh. They pulled into their driveway and he corralled everyone into the house. Once inside Petunia and Dudley quickly made their way into the kitchen and Harry escaped upstairs to his bedroom.

Uncle Vernon shouted at her for half an hour until he was red in the face before throwing her into the cupboard under the stairs. Willow heard the sound of the lock engaging and sighed. She knew that she would be here a while, but something seemed off and she couldn't put her finger on it.

It wasn't until that night as she lay in bed that she figured it out.

Uncle Vernon was afraid.


	3. Letters, Letters, Letters

**Authors Note:**

**Another day another update! This one is coming a day later than I would've liked, but that's what college does to you. Well that and my habit of practically re-writing the chapter when I edit it.**

**I'm also trying to balance dialogue and description which is the part of my writing that I need to work on.**

**Anyway, next week will be back on our regularly scheduled Friday.**

**Stay Spooky**

* * *

A full week passed before Willow built up even a shred of confidence to sneak out of her cupboard. Her socked feet kept her silent as she crept into the kitchen in the middle of the night to get some food. With deft hands she grabbed cans of forgotten soup from the back of the pantry, an apple and a bottle of water. Willow rationed that for two or three days before going back and getting more. She kept that up and before she knew it two and a half weeks of this passed, and she was finally let out of her cupboard. A quick check on the bathroom scale showed that she lost a good couple of pounds that she couldn't afford to lose and a look in the mirror show that the bones in her face were more prominent and that she could now count her individual ribs. Thankfully though, her release from confinement meant that the zoo incident was all but forgotten and Dudley was back in the spotlight. The reason being that Dudley had gotten into Smeltings, Vernon's Alma Mater. Willow cooked the Dursleys' their breakfast as Vernon went on and on about how proud he was.

"Caveat Smeltonia_. Proudest moment of my life."_

Willow rolled her eyes but dutifully served their breakfast of bacon and eggs, making sure to give Dudley two extra portions and moving away before he was able to smack her with his Smelting Stick. She washed the frying pans and dried them. Not long after, with his face in his newspaper, Uncle Vernon ordered her to get the mail. She sidestepped a swing from Dudley's Smelting Stick, walked up to the front door and grabbed the mail that the postman pushed through the mail slot. Shuffling through the stack of mail, most of which were bills and assorted junk mail she was taken aback that there was a letter addressed to her. It was a creme colored envelope with black lettering that seemed to glitter. Even more surprising was the address that they wrote:

_**Ms. Willow Rose Potter**_

_**The Cupboard under the stairs**_

_**4 Privet Drive,**_

_**Little Whinging**_

_**Surrey**_

She noticed that Harry had one too, almost identical to hers, though his was addressed to the second bedroom. Willow quickly darted into Cupboard and put her letter under her pillow. Willow knew that Uncle Vernon would take it if he knew that someone wrote to her. She made sure that the Dursleys were still distracted with their breakfast, Vernon had his nose in his newspaper, and subtly gave Harry his letter. She handed the rest of the stack of mail to Uncle Vernon. He grunted and shooed her away with the paper.

She took that as a hint and walked as quickly as she could without attracting notice, to her cupboard. Willow closed the door just as she heard Dudley yell.

"Dad! Harry got a letter from someone!"

Willow winced and sent a silent apology to her twin, hoping that he wasn't going to get in too much trouble.

She sat on her lumpy mattress and took the letter from under the pillow. She couldn't help but stare at the black lettering that still seemed to glitter even in the dim yellow light of her room. She flipped the envelope over intending to open it and paused. There was a wax seal on the back. A bright red color with a very strange crest pressed into it. She looked at the wax seal quizzically.

_Who uses wax seals anymore?_

She shook her head, those thoughts didn't matter right now, and she carefully opened the envelope.

_**Dear Ms. Potter,**_

_**We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed you'll find a list of all necessary books and equipment.**_

_**Term begins on the first of September. We await your owl.**_

_**Yours Sincerely,**_

_**Minerva McGonagall**_

She was astounded. A magic school, she couldn't believe it. She immediately went to re-read the letter, wanting to memorize every line of every word on that page.

She was so busy reading it over and over that she didn't hear her uncle stomping up to her cupboard and yanking open her door. He snatched the letter out of her hand, red in the face, and she yelled in protest.

"Give that back! That's my letter." She reached for it but Uncle Vernon was too tall

She was yelling in vain as well, he ripped the letter to pieces in front of her. Willow felt her anger rise as she watched the pieces of the letter fall to the floor in front of her, and this time she didn't try to stop it.

As her uncle screamed that they wouldn't have freaks in this house Willow's anger continued to rise. The yelling continued with Uncle Vernon towering over her in the doorway of her cupboard for some time until Willow had gotten so angry that the lights exploded. Willow didn't get a chance to see a reaction from Uncle Vernon, he froze up and backed out of the cupboard, slamming the door closed.

Willow was still fuming when the door opened again a while later, only this time Harry was standing in the doorway, a plate of food in his hand. She shifted on her bed to make room for her twin. He sat down next to her and handed Willow the food, a small helping of pasta with a cream sauce, a piece of toast, and a bottle of water.

"I'm sorry it's not much," he began sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"This was all I could sneak past them, but I'll try to bring you more tomorrow... I'm assuming you got a letter as well."

"Yeah, I did." Her voice was quiet.

Harry sighed and his shoulders slumped, Willow had never seen her brother this upset before. She didn't know what to do about it. Harry ran a hand through his black hair showcasing his lighting bolt scar on his forehead that he had had for as long as Willow could remember.

"I just wish that I got a chance to read the letter before Uncle Vernon took it. Do you know- did you get a chance to read it."

Willow didn't even hesitate to answer her twin.

"No, I wasn't able to open it in time. Uncle Vernon snuck up on me." Harry didn't have anything to say to that.

Willow ate her meal in an awkward silence with her sibling by her side. Every once in a while he would open his mouth to say something, pause, shake his head, close his mouth and in 5 minutes repeat the entire process. Once she was done Harry took the plate from her and left after they exchanged quiet good nights.

Willow closed the door behind him and sighed, practically throwing herself on her bed and just lying there. Thinking.

She didn't know why she didn't tell Harry. She suspected that his letter probably said the same thing that hers did. But just this once, she had something that Harry didn't, and for some reason she didn't want to let that go.

The next morning at breakfast, it was clear that there were lines in the sand, and for the first time, Harry was on Willow's side. Vernon made Dudley get the mail and was enraged when he returned with ten more letters for Harry and Willow. He promptly ripped those letters as well, much to Harry and Willow's anger, and spent the rest of that afternoon nailing the letter flap shut. That didn't stop the letters. They forced their way through the gaps in the front and back doors. Owls accosted the Dursleys with these letters every time they went outside. Petunia found letters in her eggs, and in the milk carton. Each letter they found, the Dursleys shredded, which in turn made Willow's temper shorter. More lights exploded and in turn she was kept in her cupboard for most of the week. This continued until Sunday, no matter what Vernon tried to do to stop the letters, they kept coming, and so did the owls.

Sunday morning was different though. Willow could feel it as she sat down at the table for breakfast. The difference started with the strangely good mood that her uncle was in. It was so strange that even Petunia and Dudley were glancing at him in confusion as they dug unto their bacon and waffles.

"Good morning Potters! It's Sunday," he declared happily across the breakfast table.

"Do you know what that means?"

Willow clenched her jaw "There's no post"

Vernon Dursleys beady eyes gleamed with vicious delight. He smiled cruelly at Willow and at harry too, which surprised everyone else.

"That's right! No Post on Sundays! Not a single letter."

Willow watched in interest as a single letter came shooting from the fireplace and hit him in the back of the head. Vernon whipped around and picked up the fallen letter, shaking with fury. Roughly two beats later the gate to the fireplace burst open and letters came flying through. Petunia screamed and fainted at the sight of her living room and dining room being flooded with letters while Dudley ran up the stairs, panicked.

"That's it!" Vernon bellowed, "We're leaving right now. Everyone, go pack your things. Only the essentials."

20 minutes and a tantrum from Dudley later, the Dursleys and the Potters were on their way somewhere. The children were squished in the backseat and Harry made sure to be in between Dudley and his twin, just in case. The drive was…. Strange to say the least. Every once in a while, Uncle Vernon would stop and get out of the car . However, each time he did someone would hand him more letters. This happened at a motel, at a National Park, and at a mom and pop restaurant they ate at. He became increasingly agitated. At each stop, after he was handed the letters, he would look around, muttering to himself, get back in the car, and continue to drive. Willow took the opportunity during this seemingly never ending ride to take a nap.

She awoke a couple hours later just in time for her to realize that it was night and that Uncle Vernon was coming back to the car with a package.

_When did we stop?_ _And what's in that package. _

Those thoughts were swept away when Vernon to the family that he had found a place for them to stay. A sea captain was going to take them by boat Vernon told them. Dudley whimpered at the news.

"Daddy's gone mad over some letters hasn't he?"

Petunia didn't answer Dudley's question directly, but the look that she gave her son when Vernon showed then family the boat answered the question.

Yes. He had gone mad.

Willow sighed as she was ushered into the boat. The night was cold and windy and being forced to stand at the bow of the boat made it no better. That neat that not only was she cold, she was also soaked from the spray of the sea water. At least the night was beautiful enough that she could look at the stars while they rode to what looked like a hut on the rocks. Which, as they got closer, was exactly what it was. Willow looked at the dilapidated hut. Made of rotted wood, it gave off the appearance that it would fall over if anything stronger than a light breeze hit it. Inside the hut was no better. Riddled with holes, the hut was filled with a cold draft. Petunia and Vernon to the only bed in the only bedroom in the hut and Dudley took the couch. That left the floor and a thin, moth eaten blanket for Harry and Willow. Everyone settled down for bed at around 11, after multiple failed attempts from Vernon to start a fire in the fireplace, and the twins huddled together for warmth when Willow realized something.

"We turn 11 in an hour," she whispered to her brother.

"Happy birthday to us… Do you think the letters stopped coming?" Harry turned his head to look at her.

"They didn't stop when we were there, so I hope not... Goodnight Harry." And with that they both fell into a restless sleep to the sound of the wind blowing through the hut and the waves crashing against the rocks.

_CRUNCH CRUNCH_

Willow shivered and opened her eyes. It was still dark and noticeably quiet, she could find the source of the noise that woke her. Looking at her twin she realized that he stole all of the moth eaten blanket and was wrapped up in it similar to a cocooned caterpillar.

"So greedy," she muttered.

She sat up, glancing around, and saw that both Harry and Dudley were still sleeping. Laying back down she decided to ignore the strange noise when it happened again, except closer to the hut. She shook her twin awake and pushed his glasses on his face as his green eyes blinked blearily up at her.

"What's going on Willow?"

"I think someone is-"

BANG… BANG… BANG

The noise startled Willow and Harry. Dudley was so frightened that he fell off of the couch, his limbs tangled in the plethora of blankets that he had piled on him. Vernon came into the room, hiding Petunia behind his large frame and brandishing a rifle.

_So that's what was in the package,_ Willow eyed the rifle warily.

The poor door was pounded on again, and eventually it was just torn off its hinges. It fell to the floor and dust flew everywhere. Standing in the doorway was the biggest man Willow had ever seen. The man must've been more than 7 feet tall; he had to hunch over and get through the door.

"Mornin' Dursleys. Sorry 'bout yeh door" The strange mage picked up the door and propped it against the against the it's frame.

"Yeh wouldn't mind getting me a cuppa tea?"

Petunia made a mouse like noise at the question. His height, plus his heavy-set stature made him look terrifying to the Dursleys, Willow though, was mainly just curious. He seemed to know them, and she wondered if he knew her and Harry too. The giant man's eyes darted about the room until they landed on the twins.

"There they are," The man exclaimed, a smile forming on his features, making his eyes twinkle and causing a small smile to unconsciously form on Willow's face as well.

"I haven't seen you both since you were wee ones. Knew yer mother and father too you know. Kindest people you'd ever meet." He teared up, pausing to dig into the pockets of his brown canvas coat and pulled out a handkerchief, with which he proceeded to blow his nose into.

"You knew our parents?" Harry questioned; the man nodded.

"They were great wizards, well up until they were killed by You-Know-Who"

"Wait, I thought our parents were killed in a car crash?

"That's some muggle rubbish, Dumbledore said that we might have trouble getting to you two, but you really don't know nothin bout nothin?"

Willow shook her head, it was a ridiculous question, he wouldn't have been here if they did.

"Who are you anyway? Who's Dumbledore? Why are we just now finding out about this? What's Hogwarts anyway?" She paused trying to push the panic and confusion that was crawling its way up her throat, back down. The man sat down on one end of the couch motioning for Harry and Willow to sit next to him.

"Name's Rubeus Hagrid, I'm the Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Which reminds me."

He pulled out two envelopes and handed them to the twins. Willow opened her and found the same letter as the one that she got at the Dursleys, though this time it was addressed to the Hut-On-Rock.

"What does it mean they await my owl?"

Harry was right, it was a very curious line. Hagrid made a noise of realization before he pulled a very disgruntled looking owl from inside his coat and wrote a response.

"To Dumbledore," he explained as he was writing, "He's the Headmaster of Hogwarts, entrusted me with this mission to come get yeh. Good man, Dumbledore."

"So, we're Wizards?" Hagrid looked up when Willow asked the question.

"Well of course, your parents were the greatest witch and wizard of their generation, of course the two of ye would be magic."

"But like you said, we don't know nothing about nothing. We don't even know why our parents died, or who we really are." Harry interjected.

"Well you're the Boy-Who-Lived!"

Willow was taken aback at Harry's "name" That seems like a bit much, she thought to herself, but Hagrid continued, and she listened in to see if he would reveal why he was given that ridiculous name.

"You see, when you were just a wee lad, Harry, barely a year old. There was a dark wizard who wanted to kill you. He was as evil as they come. Studied dark magic 'n everthin."

"What was his name?" Hagrid looked at Willow, like he seemed to forget that she was there.

"Well, I don't like saying it, but I can't spell it, so I'll only say it once. His name was Voldemort." He shuddered violently.

Willow didn't recognize the name but it did bring forth a remembered memory of flashes of green and a pair of red eyes.

"Anyways," Hagrid continued, "he wanted to kill ye Harry. He killed your parents to get to ye."

Harry's eyes widened comically.

"How do you know he wanted to kill me?"

"It's simple, the scar on your forehead can only come from a killing curse, though somehow you lived, and he died. Codswallop in my opinion. There wasn't enough soul left in him to die. And that's another thing." He looked at Willow.

"He didn't try to kill ye, which is strange. Dumbledore doesn't even know, and he knows everythin. In fact, you were pretty calm when we all showed up, didn't even make one peep…."

Hagrid had gotten quieter as he told the story. Therefore, when he abruptly stood up and said that they needed to get going, Willow was slightly startled. She narrowed her eyes at the man. She was glad that he told her what happened, but something didn't sit right with her. There was something about the story that was off. She wasn't sure what it was yet, but she vowed to herself that she was going to figure out what it was. She stood when Hagrid looked back at her, both him and Harry were already almost out the door. She quickly walked over to them starting to feel excitement overshadow the suspicion that she felt earlier.

She looked up at Hagrid as they headed out of the hut ignoring the protests of the Dursleys like they had been doing the entire time.

"Where are we going anyway?"

Hagrid smiled at her and Harry as he led them to a motorcycle with a passenger compartment.

"We're going to get your school supplies, and for that, we need to go to Diagon Alley."


	4. Witches, Wizards, and Goblins, Oh My!

**Chapter 4 is finally up! I will probably move the update date to Saturday permanently due to the fact that I'm a college student. **

**The Diagon Alley chapter was originally supposed to be one chapter but it was way too long so here is part one and you'll get part two next Saturday!**

**Happy reading!**

* * *

Willow freaked out at first when she realized that they were going to _fly _on this motorcycle. She stared at Hagrid as he swung a leg over the motorcycle and settled himself onto the seat. Harry scrambled into the passenger compartment and looked at Willow, confused as to why she was hesitating.

_Alright, you have two options. You can get on the motorcycle or you can go back to the Dursleys. _She almost laughed as she climbed into the compartment with her brother. Go back to the Dursleys? She was being ridiculous. She vowed to herself that come hell or high water, there was no way that she was going to go back to them.

Hagrid started the motorcycle and Willow forced herself to watch the hut on the rock get farther and farther away and eventually get lost in the vastness of the blue sea.

On the way Hagrid explained that they would stop by the Leaky Cauldron. Anyone who wanted to get to the entrance of Diagon Alley would have to go through the Leaky Cauldron, which was apparently some sort of wizard bar.

Willow sat in silence for a while letting the wind whip past her. She half listened to Hagrid and Harry's conversation as she looked down at the passing landscape, admiring the lush green forests they were flying over. When they got to the topic of what they would specifically need for Hogwarts she decided to speak up.

"Hagrid, how are we supposed to pay for our school supplies, we don't have any money, and-"

"Of course ye do, do you think your parents left you with nothing? Nah, it's all in your vault at Gringotts."

"Gringotts?" Harry asked.

She looked over at Harry, and he was looking at Hagrid puzzled. She rolled her eyes and smiled, Gringotts was obviously a bank. Though the name did sound absolutely ridiculous. She did nudge Harry a little when Hagrid confirmed her thought, Gringotts was the wizarding bank.

"Run by goblins, you know, so you best not try anything, they'll get real ugly if ye do"

She gave him the side eye that seemed to say _I told you so. _He scowled at her playfully before they began to laugh at each other. The wind made their hair go in every direction imaginable making the two of them quite a comical sight. Harry's soft green eyes met Willow's harsh green ones as they laughed at each other. At least until Willow's brain processed what Hagrid said.

_There are Goblins?!_

Not long afterward they landed in an empty field and walked to the street just catty-corner of it.

"Ah, here we are, the Leaky Cauldron." Hagrid clapped the twins on the shoulder before pointing to a shabby building which looked out of place nestled between a more modern bookstore and record shop.

Willow stared at the building in disbelief, it didn't look like much. Although, to give the poor tavern some credit, it looked better than that god forsaken hut on the rock, but that wasn't to beat. Hagrid ushered them in through the wooden door and, as much as it was a hole in the wall on the outside, it was pretty cozy, though quite dim, and fairly busy on the inside. The bartender, and owner according to Hagrid, noticed the giant right away.

"Hagrid! Here for a pint?" The old man wiped down a couple of glasses and poured a few drinks for some bizarrely dressed patrons before giving his full attention to Hagrid.

Hagrid cleared his throat.

"Not today, Tom. I have some important business," he puffed his chest proudly.

"I got a mission from Dumbledore 'imself. Told me to take the Potter twins to get their school supplies." With Hagrid's declaration everyone in the pub quieted their conversations and turned to look, or in reality, stare at them. Examining the people around her now that the pub was silent was still, the people weren't looking at _them_. They were mainly looking at Harry.

"It's the Boy-Who-Lived."

"Harry Potter?

"He defeated You-Know-Who"

It seemed as if someone flipped a switch and everyone began talking again, but this time, everyone was talking about Harry. 'Boy-Who-Lived' seemed to be the phrase that everyone was using and Willow was wondering why they couldn't have thought of a better name for him.

Willow stepped back as the wizards gathered around Harry, she didn't want to be in the limelight like that and the witches and wizards had already acknowledged that she was there and moved on to talk to Harry who seemed to be loving the attention. She sighed. It was how it always was.

Willow tried to ignore all of the noise, choosing instead to ask the owner if he had anything to drink. He gave her a mug of water and, in an attempt to start a conversation and cheer her up, asked who she was.

"Willow Potter, twin to Mr. Celebrity over there." Willow forced herself to keep a light tone and was rewarded when a spark of humor lit up in Tom's eyes. Tom opened his mouth to say something smart back when someone else spoke before him.

"Y-You know, n-n-not a l-lot w-w-was wr-written about you." She turned to look at the stuttering voice, watching as a man sat down right next to her.

"P-pity really, c-considering you weren't hit w-w-with a single sp-spell. V-very odd y-you kn-now"

She stared at the stranger. This turban wearing, stuttering man knew more about her than she did, but then again, what she knew wasn't much.

"Who are you?" Tom had gone to attend to other patrons, it was just Willow and this man.

"I'm P-professor Qu-Quirrell. I t-teach the D-defense Against the Dark Arts at Hog-hogwarts." He chuckled, even though his demeanor made him seem terrified of the very word that he was speaking.

"A r-rather rid-d-iculous name for a c-c-lass considering all t-types of magic can be d-dangerous."

Willow's eyes widened as she took a drink of her water. She tried to ask Hagrid about magic but he kept deflecting her questions. She was dying for more information, and the man was willing to give it to her. She would listen and try to retain as much of what she told him even though she couldn't take him seriously with that ridiculous purple turban wrapped around his head haphazardly.

"There are different types of magic?"

A gleam entered into the eyes of the professor at the question and he placed his arms on the table, and folded his hands. His face a little more serious. He straightened his posture as he began to lecture Willow.

"Why of course, _in theory, _people talk about light magic, dark magic and grey magic, not to mention ancient magic. Each kind can do both harm and good, you know. It all depends on the user, and their intent. But I shouldn't go on that tangent, though you seem to be very interested. If you have my class, then I'd be more than happy to continue this conversation and talk to you about the inner workings of magic. However," he paused and looked over her shoulder.

Willow turned to see what he was looking at. Hagrid and Harry seemed to have finally gotten away from the crowed of people and were now looking for her.

"it seems like our time for now has been cut short, for your brother and Hagrid are waiting on you."

Willow nodded and said goodbye to Professor Quirrell. She made her way over to them, stopping once to thank Tom for the water. She reached Harry and Hagrid they made their way to the back of the Leaky Cauldron.

Hagrid cleared his throat.

"So, I saw you talking to Professor Quirrell." Willow hummed her affirmation to him as they kept walking.

"He's a nice man, Quirrell, even with the stutter. He got bit by a vampire while in Romania a while back and hasn't been the same."

Willow's brain seemed to short circuit and it took an embarrassing amount of time for Willow to process the fact that Vampires ALSO existed. Once she was able to sort of grasp the idea it was quickly pushed to the back of her mind when she thought about what Hagrid said when he was talking about Professor Quirrell.

About his stutter specifically.

Thinking back on her conversation with the professor, she realized that halfway through their fairly short conversation, he stopped stuttering. In fact, she realized, his entire demeanor changed drastically. It was strange.

_This whole situation is strange, _she reminded herself, _you're in a different world practically_

But even so, first Hagrid's story about Voldemort, and now Quirrell. Something was, or is, going on.

Willow just hoped it wasn't of the life altering sort.

She stared at the red brick wall they were facing. Were they supposed to go through there? There was no door. Willow and Harry looked at Hagrid, the giant man had pulled out an umbrella and tapped a specific brick on the wall. After a couple of seconds the bricks started to separate, first forming a small hole and then the hole transformed into an opening. They stepped through and the twins were practically transported to another world. They were greeted to the sight of witches and wizards going from store to store, running errands, getting lunch. It was like a familiar marketplace, or town square, but all of the shops and all of the cafes were magical. The patrons were in wizarding robes that swished around their bodies, and a number of their carried brooms, or wore pointed hats.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley," Hagrid said, smiling at the looks on the twins faces. "Come on now, we've got things to do. Supplies to get."

"Where are we going first?" Harry's voice was filled with awe as he look around at everything

"Gringotts is first, you need to get your money and I have to pick up a special package for Dumbledore. That big white building up there. Do yeh see it?"

There wasn't a way that you could miss it. It was the tallest building, and, in Willow's opinion, the most beautiful. Gringotts was made of white marble the building itself looked tilted but as you got closer the tilted facade lifted and you were able to see the grandeur of the building. As they walked up the steps to the front doors, Willow stopped to read the gold lettering of the sign that was engraved on them

_**Enter, stranger, but take heed**_

_**Of what awaits the sin of greed,**_

_**For those who take, but do not earn,**_

_**Must pay most dearly in their turn,**_

_**So, if you seek beneath our floors**_

_**A treasure that was never yours,**_

_**Thief, you have been warned, beware**_

_**Of finding more than treasure there**_

"How nice," Willow muttered, wincing.

"Like I said yeh'd be crazy ter try to steal from here. It's one of the safest places, aside from Hogwarts that is. Run by goblins, an' they can be real scary." Hagrid shivered and it accentuated his point.

Harry paled and gulped. Willow rolled her eyes again, but on the inside she felt the same way. If Hagrid wanted them to trust the goblins, then why was he trying to scare them. It didn't make any sense to her.

Hagrid opened the front door for them and the twins cautiously stepped inside of Gringotts. As soon as they walked through the doors, she had to continuously fight the urge to stare at everything. The marble walls and floors only make the gold decorations and huge chandeliers stand out more. It was absolutely beautiful. Willow's mind was going at 100 miles an hour trying to process everything as they made their way to an available bank teller. They walked up the desk the teller was at and Willow made a conscious effort not to stare at him. With his long ears and very short stature, paired with his beak like nose and wrinkled skin, he looked about what Willow thought a goblin would look like.

"State your business." the goblin didn't look up from what he was writing.

"The Potters would like to make a withdrawal, and I have to pick something up for Dumbledore in Vault 713" Hagrid fumbled around, looking for something in his coat pocket.

"Key please," the goblin droned, putting away his work.

Hagrid searched his coat for a bit longer until he found the key and a sealed letter. He placed both on the counter. The goblin accepted the key but opened the letter and went through what looked to be an authentication process. Once he was satisfied with the letter he called for another goblin, Griphook, to take them down to the vaults. The goblin, Griphook, came and led the trio to mine carts that took them deeper into the bank.

They descended downward into the bank. Willow watched with unease as the bank became darker and the air became damp. She made the mistake of looking down once and realized that she couldn't tell what was at the bottom. She couldn't see the bottom at all.

Willow was thankful when they finally lurched to their first stop.

Vault 687. The Potter Vault.

Griphook took out the little golden key that Hagrid had given him and inserted it. When the goblin opened the vault, Willow was astounded at the sheer amount of gold, silver, and various other treasures in there. The group exited the mine cart and Harry and Willow took the time to investigate the other treasures. There was a stack of old books and a pile of expensive looking clothing boxes on one corner of the vault. There was also gorgeous sets of jewelry there as well. Hagrid stepped into the vault with them and began to help scoop up a portion of the coins into two separate bags.

"Right then, 29 bronze Knuts to a silver Sickle and 17 sickles to a gold Galleon." He did a quick check of each bag.

"That should that yeh both a couple o' terms." They they and Hagrid pulled Willow aside and told her that he added a bit extra in case she wanted to get new clothes outside of her school robes.

"You won't want to wear yer uniform all the time." Willow smiled and thanked him as they got back in the cart. She hadn't even realized that this was all she had to wear, and it was sweet that he did.

When everyone was settled in again Griphook got back in and continued their descent into the depth of Gringotts. Willow turned to ask Hagrid a question but he looked a little green a she thought better of it.

Vault 713 was their next stop and it was so dim Willow could barely make out the number and letters spelling out the vault. There was no keyhole, so instead the goblin caressed the door and it rippled and vanished.

"What happens if someone else tried that?" Willow asked, shocked. The goblin smiled sadistically and leered at her.

"They get sucked into the vault, but worry, we come looking for robbers around once a decade."

She shuddered, horrified. Willow leaned out of the cart to see what was inside this Vault. There had to be even more riches than what she saw inside her and Harry's vault. But there were no riches. In fact, Looking closer inside there seemed to be nothing but a small brown package, no even a single Knut. Hagrid quickly exited the mine cart, scooped up the package and climbed reluctantly back in.

"It'd be great if yeh didn't tell anyone about this. Dumbledore wants to keep it a secret."

Willow glanced at Hagrid, confused. If he and Dumbledore wanted to keep this a secret… why did he take two children on the errand?

The cart lurched again but this time moved upwards, which was probably worse than than going down in Willow's opinion. Hagrid seemed to agree, not only did he look green, he also looked like he was going to he sick at any moment. Willow's only hope was that if he did, he aimed outside of the cart.

Soon they were back on the main floor and Willow had never loved solid ground more in her life. The twins waited a moment for Hagrid to get his bearings and they left Gringotts.

They took a few steps outside and Willow eyes had to adjust to being in the daylight, the vaults were dark and going into sun straight afterward was not something she would recommend. Hagrid paused again after they descended the steps of the wizarding banks and had told them that he needed to go do something. Willow thought she heard him mumble something along the lines of "blasted carts" and "pick-me-up".

"Will you be okay doing some shopping by yourselves?" They hesitated but nodded when they noticed that he still looked a little green. He thanked them, turned, and rushed away, leaving Harry and Willow alone in the middle of Diagon Alley.

They were both quiet for a moment.

"Well," Harry started, and paused unsure of what to say.

Willow thought it was best if she didn't say anything. They looked at each other for a moment more, turned away from each other, and went in opposite directions.


	5. Ancient Magic and Ancient Wands

_**Diagon Alley part two! We are so close to the start of term, and I am so excited for you guys to read it! **_

_**Please let me know what you think, or if you have any questions. **_

_**Happy Reading!**_

* * *

The first stop was the clothing store for her school uniform. She stared helplessly at the store names before flagging down a startled witch in navy blue robes and wearing a strange hat with roses of the same color and silver feathers adorning it and asked her where the robe shop was. The woman kindly explained to her how to get to a store called Madame Malkin's. Willow thanked the witch and turned in the general direction of the store, stepping directly into the throng of people milling around Diagon Alley. She dutifully followed the witch's directions and eventually ended up at the entrance Madame Malkins.

The exterior looked slightly worn as well, but then again, so did the rest of the building in Diagon Alley. The purple paint on the door was chipping away and it only made the beautiful robes in the shop window stand out more. Willow realized that it didn't mean that it was necessarily a bad thing. It's just how it was. She walked in and was immediately greeted by a witch behind a marble counter who introduced herself as Madame Malkin.

"Welcome to Madame Malkin's! Are you getting robes for Hogwarts dear?" Willow nodded her head.

Madame Malkin grabbed a few things and moved out from behind the counter. She straightened out her mauve robes and motioned for Willow for her to follow her as she began to speak again.

"Oh good! We have another student getting fitted for his robes as well, so we'll take you back there."

Willow continued to follow Madame Malkin, weaving in and out of the racks of dress robes and uniforms. Which reminded Willow that she needed to ask about casual back of the store was set up like a tailor's shop. There were two stands with dressing mirror that encompassed both and a couple of changing areas as well. One of the other employees handed Willow a uniform set and told her to change into it and was further instructed to stand on the second platform next to a platinum-haired boy. The boy looked at her with stormy grey eyes as if he was checking to see if she was worthy of his attention. She refused to talk to him first or even acknowledge his presence if he was going to act that way. Her attitude seemed to work, at some point, he finally deemed her worthy and spoke to her.

"Are you going to be a first year at Hogwarts?" He had a drawling sort of voice, and Willow didn't know what to make of it.

"Yeah, I am."

"Me too, I'm Draco Malfoy. My father is out looking at wands and after this I'll drag them to look at racing brooms. Do you own one?"

Willow was too caught up in relishing the fact that she was about to get clothes that actually fit that she only caught the tail end of what this pointy-faced boy said.

"No, I don't." Willow hoped he wouldn't notice how absent minded she was being in the conversation, she was just too focused on the feel of the robes against her ankles, and the way that the shirt and skirt felt. Who knew wearing clothes that fit could feel so comfortable.

"Do you know what house you'll be in?"

"Oh, um…" she shrugged as the seamstresses continued to work on the pair of them. Willow hadn't really been paying enough attention to the conversation to know what was going on, and even if she did, she didn't know what he was talking about. It was making her uncomfortable. Thankfully though, he didn't need an answer and he continued as of she hadn't spoken at all.

"Well, know one really knows what house they're going to be in until they get there. I bet I'll be in Slytherin though, my entire family belonged to that house. Imagine being a Hufflepuff!" He laughed and the most Willow could do was smile awkwardly.

Slytherin? Hufflepuff?

"Well, looks like I'm done. I'll see you on the train." He turned and began to head for the door before pausing.

"Say what was your name?"

"Willow Potter." His mouth dropped open and she could tell that the boy wanted to say something but the woman fitting Willow for robes patted her leg, telling her to go and take them off, effectively ending their conversation.

Once she came back from the dressing room, with the robes folded, the seamstress explained that they'd still be too big due to how small Willow really was. She didn't really mind, the robes were still the best fitting thing that she had ever owned. Madame Malkin returned to wrap up her school robes and Willow took the chance to ask about casual wear.

"Well, we mainly sell dress robes and uniforms, but I'll see if we have anything in stock" Madame Malkin hurried back further into the store, the sight of her white hair getting lost in the maze of clothes. She empty handed, blue eyes regretful, saying that she didn't have anything for her.

"That's fine, Madame. Thank you anyway." Willow smiled at the shop owner as they walked back up to the register. She paid for her clothes and headed outside, looking at the list of stuff that she needed. She deliberated for a moment or two before deciding to go to the bookstore. Wherever that was.

Willow wandered around Diagon Alley trying to find where she needed to go get her textbooks. They should've put store names on this list too, at least she would've had an idea of what to look for. She halfway cursed herself as she passed store after store for deciding to split off from Harry. At least they would've been lost together. She was too busy trapped in her thoughts and looking at the shop names to notice that the person in front of her had stopped. She was looking up at the sign for Twilfitt and Tatting's and accidentally ran into them and fell.

"I'm sorry mister…" They turned around and Willow realized who exactly she had run into.

"Professor Quirrell?" She hastily stood and brushed herself off, apologizing to him once more.

"I-it's quite alr-right Miss P-Potter. Are you g-getting your s-supplies?"

"Yes sir, though I can't seem to find the bookshop," she rubbed the back of her neck embarrassed and looked down at her list.

"Ah yes, you m-must be l-looking for F-flourish and Bl-blotts. I was j-just Heading there m-myself. If you-you're not opposed w-we could accompany each other."

_This professor was my savior. Who knows how long I would've been wandering around here trying to look for that blasted bookshop_.

On the way there they held light conversation, Willow asked him about Romania and he told her all about it, though he didn't mention any vampires. His stuttering made the conversation very difficult to understand, but it was nice enough.

The passed Madame Malkin's and Willow was embarrassed to realize that she had been going the wrong way. About halfway down the street and on the left hand side they came across Flourish and Blotts. It was by far Willow's favorite store. She noticed gold embossed spell books the size of paving slabs in the window. They walked in and she stopped to take in the sight of the book store. The store was filled to the brim with books. Shelves upon shelves lined the walls of the shop. Books from floor to ceiling surrounded Willow.

She was in heaven.

As she looked around, a book about ancient magic caught her eye. She picked it up and admired the embellishments on the cover.

"Professor, What's the difference between ancient magic and regular magic?"

"W-well it D-d-depends."

"Depends on what?" she tore her eyes from the book and looked at him paying close attention. She wanted to hear and understand every word of what he had to say. If she hadn't, she would've missed the straightening of his posture, the gleam of something foreign in his eyes giving them a reddish glow, nor would she have noticed the disappearance of his infamous stutter. It was like he was a different person.

"It depends, Miss Potter, on the type of Ancient magic."

"The type?"

"Yes. There are many different kinds, you have nature magic, soul magic, blood magic, song magic, which is not as ridiculous as the name makes it seem. There's also magic of the creature, which is helpful when dealing with dragons, basilisks, hippogriffs and other magical creatures. If you're interested in learning more about it, I'll show you a few of my favorites on the topic."

He looked at the book Willow was holding with mild contempt.

"I don't, however, suggest the one that you're looking at though, most authors are biased towards light magic. Most, if not all types of Ancient magic are grey magic."

Willow met the professor's now fully red eyes, amused. She held her hands up in mock surrender.

"Well if the great Professor Quirrell says not to read this one, then I shall put it back." she joked. However, she didn't miss the fact that he twitched in annoyance at his name. She ignored it in favor of putting the book back where she found it. She followed him as he picked books about ancient magic, and some support material to go along with some of the other books, off of the shelves absolutely fascinated. The way he talked about ancient magic was hypnotic, not to mention the vast amount of knowledge that he had on the topic was amazing.

"Was there anyone who mastered all of them?"

"When ancient magic was more in vogue, there were a few. But it takes a very powerful witch or wizard to accomplish it. There's very little frivolous wand waving, in fact ancient magic is a very subtle form of magic, much like potions or occlumency."

"Occlumency?" They had moved away from the ancient magic books and were getting her actual textbooks, which were far less exciting.

"Ah, I forget, you're still young. Occlumency is the art of protecting one's mind from people who want to get into your mind. Those people are legilimens, they practice the art of legilimency. Occlumency is the defensive version of that. Our own headmaster is a legilimens."

"Is there a way to protect your mind if you're not skilled?" The professor had taken her supply list from her and continued to pile textbooks onto the stack that she was carrying. Her arms were beginning to tremble under the weight of them all.

"Good question, and the answer is one that many people tend to forget. Eye contact. Normally, for a legilimens to enter your mind, they need eye contact." He pulled out a pocket watch and looked at the time. "I must run, however once class starts, come visit my office after you read those books and we'll talk about what you've read."

"I'd like that professor, thank you." They paid for their books and went their separate ways. She spotted an ice cream parlor close by and decided to wait for Hagrid and her twin there, not wanting to take the chance of getting lost again.

While Willow was waiting, she looked at the books for school, and the ones that professor Quirrell picked out for her. Certain books seemed way more interesting than others.

_Magical Drafts and Potions_, _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them_ and _The dark forces: A guide to self-protection_ seemed promising. And the extra books that she had gotten, one on each form of ancient magic, _Properties of Wizarding Blood and their Application: a Look into Blood Magic, The Ties That Bind: a study of the Soul, Songs of Llano_, and _Magical Ties to the Earth_, were equally, if not more, promising.

Willow glanced up from her stack of books to see Harry and Hagrid walking in her direction. She waved at them and Hagrid smiled at she and held up a bird cage, though she was too far away to see what kind of bird was inside. Curious, she gathered up her things and walked in their direction, meeting them halfway.

"Happy Birthday Willow! I figured that I'd get you and harry something for yer birthday. So, I got you both owls. Dead useful, wizards use them to deliver mail. What do you think?" Willow looked at over at Harry to see if this was some sort of joke, but there he was, holding a birdcage with a snowy white owl inside of it.

She thanked him profusely, tears in her eyes and took the cage with her new owl.

_I own an owl._

Her thoughts were racing as she looked from her owl to Hagrid, he was so kind to her. It was foreign. She tried to say something else to him, to truly express her gratitude, but all she could get out was a mere 'thank you'.

Hagrid waved it away, "It's a birthday gift, now, what are you going to name her?"

Willow examined the gorgeous bird so that she could find a suitable name. Owl eyes stared at her, not at all afraid. Black eyes seemed to look into Willow's soul. Pale and dark grey feathers only made the eyes stand out more. The pale grey feathers on her face, soft and light, were a stark contrast to her dark, cold eyes.

_Stark_

"I'll name you Arya," Willow told her. Arya Stark. It was a good fit for her. Willow asked Harry what he was going to name his owl; he wasn't sure yet.

They continued to shop, getting supplies for potions, plus parchment, quills, ink and the like. Hagrid looked at their school list.

"All that's left now is the wand, c'mon to Ollivander's we go." Willow could barely contain her joy at the news. This was what she was waiting for.

It was time to get their wands.

The shop, called Ollivander's, did not look very impressive, in fact, the Leaky Cauldron looked better. At least the name wasn't fading.

Harry rushed inside and Hagrid followed not long after. Willow hesitated, she was excited, but there was a nagging voice in the back of her mind telling her that this might all be taken away. She shook her head to clear the negative thoughts and walked in the door. There was one wand sitting out, on a dusty purple cushion, in the window, but all of the other wands seemed to be in boxes that were stacked everywhere. Out from behind the corner came a little old man with white skin, who introduced himself as Ollivander.

"I made all of these wands and remember every wand I've ever sold. I sold your parents their wands, and I'm sorry to say that I sold the wand that did it," He looked pointedly at Harry's forehead, where his scar was.

"It was yew and phoenix feather. He did great things with it, terrible, but great." Harry shifted, uncomfortable. Ollivander seemed to realize what he had said and changed the subject. He, instead, got to work measuring Harry with a magical tape measure as he asked him a series of questions. After the questions, he picked a wand from a shelf in the back and told Harry to give it a wave.

Harry barely picked it up before Ollivander immediately took it away, saying that it wasn't the right one and went to get another one. They continued that line for more than 15 wands before Ollivander paused and muttered something while going to the back. He brought back another one and when Harry picked it up, Willow could tell there was something different. Harry could tell too.

"Ah yes, I thought that one might work. Holly, 11 inches with a phoenix feather core." Ollivander looked at Harry with a gleam in his pale silvery eyes. "This wand has a brother wand you know. The phoenix I got the feather from only gave one other, and it's in the wand that gave you that scar."

His eyes moved to Willow, and he came around and began the same measuring process that he did with Harry. He proceeded to pull wands from in the back having her try each and every one. They neared 50 wands and she still hadn't found at match; it was getting irritating. She looked back at her two companions who were getting noticeably antsy.

"You guys can go and get something to eat while you wait, I feel like this is going to take a while." They agreed, grateful at her suggestion and, after making sure she would be okay, they left. Once they did, Ollivander, continued with the trying of the wands. As they approached wand number 100 the wand maker stopped and looked at her.

Willow looked back, completely exhausted, who knew waving a wand could take so much out of you.

"I find it strange Miss Potter that your brother has a scar, but yet you are uninjured."

"According to the people that I've talked to, he chose not to kill me. No one knows why." Willow shrugged, she wasn't in the mood to talk about Lord Voldemort today

"He chose not to kill you? Hmmm, actually Miss Potter, if you would give me a moment." He went to the back, it was completely silent save for the rummaging of boxes that she heard occasionally. She waited for a couple minutes, before he came back holding an extremely dusty box. He apologized for taking so long and asked her to try this wand. She looked at it warily, but when he opened the box the wand seemed to shine. She was enchanted as soon as she laid her eyes on it, and hardly registered the fact that Ollivander had leaned in closer as well.

Willow cautiously picked the wand up out of the box. It felt different than any of the other wands. The wand seemed warmed in her hands and she felt something similar to pulses of what could only be described as magic that travelled up and warmed her body. Willow felt complete, holding the wand. It was a beautiful wand too, light brown wood with vines all along the handle. When she took a closer look she realize that the vines had actual thorns on them, but her hand and fingers fit perfectly between them without injuring her. She finally tore her eyes away and looked at Ollivander.

"This is the wand."

"I see that, Miss Potter. That wand has a very interesting history you know. Acacia wood and Basilisk horn. It's a very temperamental and picky wand, good for subtle magic. 14 inches and very supple. Made by my ancestors."

He got a far away look in his eyes as he continued to speak.

"The horn only made one other wand, and it belonged Salazar Slytherin. This happens to be the only acacia wand that I have. I've only brought it out for one other person, Tom Riddle was his name. He wanted this wand, you know. Tried to convince himself, and me, that it belonged to him. But alas, the wand chooses the wizard, and it did not choose him. But he never forgot about it you know, always came back and asked if it was sold. You'll do well with it."

She glowed at that, thanking him. She paid for the wand and left. She wandered around Diagon Alley not quite wanting to go back to Hagrid and her brother. She was passing a shop called Magical Menagerie when she heard a shriek coming from inside. Concerned, she debated whether or not it was her problem before hurrying inside. The scene before her was chaos, customers were on chairs or stools and the employees held brooms in their hands and had their wands raised and were trying to get close to some creature.

Willow cautiously moved closer and saw that they were trying to get a snake back into its enclosure. That snake was definitely not happy at all.

"I will not! That cage is too small, I want to roam." He kept hissing. He bared his fangs, and Willow knew instantly that he was venomous.

Even so, she felt bad for him, he looked really scared. Most snakes were not the bravest of creatures, and this was definitely not the most ideal situation. She, not so nicely, pushed a couple of the employees away and got into the circle of workers with the snake.

"Great," The snake hissed, and it looked like he rolled his eyes, "another rude ass human."

She was taken aback at his cursing.

"It's not nice to make assumptions," she hissed back, crouching down to make herself seem less frightening.

"Hey, you speak snake! Do you think you could get me out of here, they always put me in a tiny cage right next to jabber mouth over there." he pointed to a cage that held a pretty ugly green toad that was croaking its heart out. Willow chuckled.

"How about you live with me, I promise that I'm not a "Jabber mouth" as you put it," she winked at him and held out her arm for him to crawl up. He seemed to hesitate, almost like he was debate with himself, before he slithering up her arm and draping himself around her neck and shoulders. She straightened out of her crouch and asked to see a saleswoman. A witch with startling red hair stepped forward and led her around the store pointing to the things that would need to take care of the snake.

"I'm glad you're buying him; he's been here a while. He tends to cause a lot of trouble for us, keeps escaping from his cage and scaring off the customers."

"If you would provide a larger enclosure for a 4-foot snake, maybe you wouldn't have as much trouble"

The woman didn't have anything to say to that.

As they walked to the register, she learned that he was a pretty young Viper, with a lot of growing left to do. Willow thought back to the Viper at the zoo, and hoped it was okay. She paid for everything and left the store and started actually making an effort to find her brother and Hagrid, especially now that it was reaching dinner time.

"Do you have a name?" the snake lifted its head from her shoulder and looked at her. His green and blue scales gleamed in the sunlight.

"We didn't really do that there."

"Would you mind if I gave you one?"

"Hmmm, I've never really had a name, but I guess it could be fun. Just don't name me something dumb. Like Spot, or Kevin." she laughed at that. She sorted through a couple of names before tentatively coming up with one. Another Game of Thrones name, she had been reading too much of the series lately, but it seemed to fit him.

"What about Sandor?"

"Sandor… Sandor… I like it! You're a real princess, you know that? That's going to be my name for you!" She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and smirked. The name was definitely fitting.


	6. Snakes on a Train

**Alright guys here's chapter six! I'm sorry I skipped last week and that I was late for this week but I had midterms and papers due, which caused my mental health to worsen. **

**However, I am back! I will try to get next week's chapter out on time, but until then, enjoy this one!**

**Happy reading**

* * *

The fallout after they returned to Privet Drive from Diagon Alley was massive. Aunt Petunia paled when Harry came in with his owl, Hedwig. Petunia hated pets, she thought they were dirty creatures and refused to allow them in her house. But even though she was visibly upset about the owl, she remained silent. Clearly knowing that Harry was a wizard terrified her enough into staying quiet. However, both Petunia and Uncle Vernon almost had an aneurysm when Willow walked in holding a cage as well. Thankfully, she had the foresight to tell Sandor to go into his cage, which she hid in her trunk, until she told him it was safe. The moment that her aunt and uncle saw Willow's owl in the cage is when they decided to have their outburst. Harry was sent up to his room and she was made to stay in the living room so she could get screamed at. Uncle Vernon practically pushed Willow onto the couch and towered over her, yelling and shouting until he was purple. Petunia was standing behind him wringing her hands and her large pale eyes darted between Willow and Vernon.

Willow realized that he was trying to bully her into returning her owl and all of her other items that she bought. She refused to react though and stood her ground, putting on a very impressive, emotionless face as her uncle raged on and on.

She learned in that moment, amidst all of the shouting, that people who had to scream and yell weren't nearly as frightening as they hoped to be. Their bark was worse than their bite so to speak. It was like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders when she realized that she no longer felt intimidated by him. However, after a while, enough was enough and she pulled out her wand. She didn't point it at anyone or use it. She just twirled it in her fingers and stared at her uncle. He stopped mid-sentence and took a step back creating some distance between them. He seemed to debate silently with himself for a moment, staring at the wand in her hands, before he let her go, pale and tight lipped.

Willow quickly made her way to her cupboard and closed the door, setting her trunk on her bed and Arya's cage on her dresser. She looked around the small, dimly lit, space and sighed. How was she supposed to fit Sandor and Arya, their cages, and everything else in this room. There were trunks everywhere and she couldn't even get on her bed. She thought for a moment. Maybe Harry would let her keep her trunk in his room. She didn't see why he wouldn't, he had the room for it. She decided to wait until the Dursleys retired to their rooms to go up to Harry's room. There's no reason for him to say no.

Harry had said no.

Willow was astonished, she looked around his room and, while it was messy, there was indeed plenty of space. If fact there was space right next to his trunk for hers, and he would still have more space than he would need to move around. She kept asking and, after a bit of unnecessary begging and explaining, which she found very humiliating, he let her keep some of her stuff with him. He begrudgingly agreed that he had the room to do so.

Going back down to her cupboard Willow went through her trunk and pulled out what she wanted to keep. She decided to keep Arya and Sandor with her, leaving Sandor out of his habitat, much to his delight, as well as the books that she got from the bookshop and dragged her trunk upstairs. She thanked her twin again, and got a slightly annoyed grunt in response. Willow rolled her eyes and left the room, going back down to get started on reading some of the books that she got.

She climbed into her bed and pulled her potions textbook onto her lap. She hadn't even opened the book when Sandor slithered up her arm and draped himself around Willow's shoulders and neck. She smiled and, with Sandor around her neck, started reading her textbook. She had been reading for about 10 minutes when Sandor spoke up.

"What are you reading boss?"

"My potions textbooks, it's more interesting than I thought it was going to be."

"Do you have to use any spells?" She closed her book making sure to mark her page and turned her head to look at her scaly companion. Willow could tell that there was something he wanted to ask. But let him continue his questioning until he got to it, she was enjoying the conversation anyway and pushing him wouldn't do anything. Finally he seemed ready to ask the question that had been bouncing around in his mind.

"Say boss... do you think you could read to me." She gaped at him, bewildered. She wasn't expecting that. She recovered quickly and didn't even hesitate before answering him.

"Sure, why not." It wouldn't hurt. Plus, having to explain it to him would help her learn better.

"You're a real princess!" Willow laughed and looked and Sandor, noting how happy he looked and sounded. Arya hooted in agreement. Smiling at them both Willow opened her textbook and began to read it again, but this time in a language that only Sandor could understand, stopping and explaining whenever Sandor had a question which was often, but she didn't mind. It was nice.

That's how Willow spent the rest of her summer. She'd get up early and do the chores and the cooking until just after dinner when she'd go back into her cupboard to read to Sandor. To anyone else, it would've just sounded like a series of hisses, but he understood it. Even Arya would quiet down and listen. In fact, during these times, Willow would take her out of her cage, and Arya would perch on her shoulder or on the top of her head, hooting if Willow took too long of a pause in her reading. After a couple of hours, they both would fall asleep and Willow would put them in their sleeping quarters before continuing to read quietly.

The day before they were to leave for King's Cross, Willow changed her routine. Her and Harry both went to ask the Dursleys during breakfast and asked if they could take them there.

"Alright, but we're only taking you because we were heading that way anyway." Uncle Vernon huffed; she rolled her eyes. Secretly though, she was glad they had gotten their confirmation. Willow promised herself that next year she would try to find a more reliable way to King's Cross.

That night, instead of her nightly reading, she packed for the train to Hogwarts. She was grateful that she asked Hagrid how they boarded the train because she never would've known that they had to go through a wall. A wall. Out of all of the things. She explained all of this to Arya and a sleeping Sandor. The latter of whom Willow had to regretfully wake up so that she could explain how tomorrow was going to work. He wasn't happy that he'd have to be in his cage but was mollified once she promised him that she'd take him out once got to the station. Even still, she could've sworn that she heard a couple of sassy comments that he made under his breath. She huffed and climbed into the bed, laughing when Sandor immediately curled himself onto her chest, falling asleep immediately.

The next morning was an early one for Willow. She had gotten up, finished packing up her room, and got everything fully ready to go. She had even dressed in skirt and blouse from her uniform, knowing that Petunia's too big hand me downs weren't going to make a good first impression. All she needed to do was put everything in her trunk. She sat on her bed and read her textbooks to pass the time, ignoring the excitement building in her stomach. Before she knew it, Harry and the Dursleys were waking up and soon they were on the way to Kings Cross.

"So where is your platform anyway?" Aunt Petunia was the first to break the silence that dominated the car, turning to look at Harry. He fumbled for his ticket and answered her question.

"Platform 9 and three quarters."

"Nine and three quarters?! Hah! There's no such thing." Uncle Vernon looked incredibly pleased at that fact. Willow knew that he wanted them, or her really, to fail.

"There is for wizards." Uncle Vernon turned around to glare at Willow so fast that the car almost swerved off of the road. Aunt Petunia shrieked and frantically grabbed ahold of the wheel while pleading with her husband to turn around. Willow levelled a stare back at her uncle until he turned around and faced the road again. The car fell into an awkward silence. They weren't supposed to say "those kinds of words" around Vernon or Petunia, but at this point, she couldn't care less. Harry quickly changed the subject to something else to avoid a blowout from Uncle Vernon, deciding to comment on how blue the sky was, and their ride continued in a strained silence. Willow reached into her sleeve of her white, uniform blouse and felt her wand, sighing happily as it warmed and pulsed at her touch like it usually did. It re-assured her and gave her a boost of determination. Things would be different at Hogwarts, she just knew it.

They got to Kings Cross and Willow quickly got out of the car, eager to be away from that atmosphere. She grabbed her trunks and was about to leave when she noticed that Harry wasn't following her. She turned and looked at him. He was out of the car, but he looked torn between going with her and saying goodbye to the Dursleys.

"I'm going to go head to the train, take your time to say bye to them." She smiled tightly at him. Harry sighed, relieved and gave her a grateful smile before turning his back on her and facing the Dursleys.

Willow turned away from their fond farewell and headed into the station, shaking of the strange feeling of rejection that she felt. She wandered around King's Cross with only her ticket as her guide. It took her a minute, but she finally found the right platform, well what she assumed was the right platform. Willow stared at the blank, red brick wall, and found herself at a loss for what to do. At least, until she saw two students in robes with their carts run head first towards the wall and disappear into it. Willow was astonished. She cautiously walked up to it and touched it, relieved when her hand went through the red brick after only a second or two of resistance.

_That must be why they have to run. That resistance could really hurt._

She took a deep breath and grabbed ahold of her cart. Readjusted her grip on the cart. Closed her eyes. Took one more deep breath. Finally, she ran towards the wall. She held her breath bracing for impact, but one never came.

Slowly she opened her eyes. On the other side of that brick wall was the "Hogwarts Express" train. She looked around at all the students and parents running around. Some were giving hugs goodbye and others waving to each other as the students climbed aboard the train. Willow watched as some students loaded their trunks into the train compartments and quickly copied what they were doing, pausing to take Sandor out of the trunk. She pushed her trunk into the storage compartments under the train and climbed aboard with Arya in one hand and her scaly companion on her shoulders.

Willow got a large number of stares as she went by each compartment, probably due to the large blue and green reptile wrapped around her neck like a piece of jewelry. She paid no attention to them and continued to look in the different compartments trying to find an empty one with little luck. She had gotten to the end of one of the train cars when she heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, you!" Willow turned her head towards the voice, a little disgruntled at being called 'you', and saw the boy from Madame Malkins. His platinum hair was gelled in the same helmet-like style as last time and his grey eyes were alight with excitement. She fully turned towards him. He faltered slightly when his eyes landed on Sandor, but he steeled himself and continued talking.

"You should sit with my friends and I." All Willow could do was blink at him, taken aback at his statement. She looked at Sandor for help and he just shrugged. Willow huffed in annoyance, Sandor had chosen this time out of all times to be silent, but agreed to sit with this boy's friends. As she followed the pale faced boy she realized that she had forgotten his name. She wracked her brain but could only come up with a last name, Malfoy. It wasn't much but it was something. The compartment he stopped at was one she had passed earlier but didn't bother to look in. Following Malfoy inside there were two other boys already sitting down.

Willow was very glad that she had the foresight to change into her part of her uniform early. Looking at Malfoy and the other two she couldn't imagine wearing her old clothes while these boys were wearing their suits with silk shirts.

"This is Blaise Zabini," Malfoy pointed towards the boy with coffee colored skin. Zabini looked at her and nodded his head, seemingly uninterested. She returned the gesture in the same manner.

"Theodore Nott," The boy, Nott, introduced himself before Malfoy was able to, holding out his hand. She shook it and introduced herself as well, he gave her a small smile and blue eyes peeked out from behind sandy blonde hair. She took a liking to him almost immediately, and Sandor did too, hissing his approval in her ear.

"So, you're a Potter, Draco told us you two met at Madame Malkins." Willow glanced over at Zabini. She had a sneaking suspicion that this was going to turn into an interrogation very soon.

"Your parents were killed by You-Know-Who?" She was right, and Zabini wasted no time.

"You mean lord Voldemort?" She watched curiously as the three boys flinched, but Willow continued like nothing happened, though she filed that reaction away in her brain.

"Yeah, they were. Well, according to everyone I've talked to at least, I don't remember much."

"Why aren't you in the history books like your brother?" Willow felt her eye begin to twitch at the continuation of Zabini's questioning, and even Sandor hissed out his annoyance.

"Well, I suppose that's due to the fact that he didn't try to kill me. You can't be celebrated for living if your life wasn't in danger." Her response was short and clipped but it seemed to appease them, and they sat in silence for a while.

After a bit Draco told everyone that he'd be right back and left the car suddenly. Willow's eyes followed him out, curious. She shrugged and let it go though, in favor of pulling out one of the books Professor Quirrell suggested: _Earth Magic for the Curious_. After getting a pointed look from Sandor, she began to read to him. She only got about five or six pages in when she just happened to look up to see Zabini and Nott staring at her, mouths open.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," she sneered.

Nott was the first one to recover. "We apologize but where did you learn Parseltongue?"

Willow softened the look on her face as she closed her book. Both boys still looked very incredulous and impressed, and she was confused as to why.

"That's what it's called? I don't know I've always been able to speak it. I've been speaking it more since this one always wants me to read to him. He's very demanding." Willow had to pause her conversation to calm a very offended snake whilst trying not to laugh. She told him that she was just kidding, though that didn't seem to do much. Nott and Zabini followed the interaction between her and the snake in wonder, watching as the snake bared its fangs at the girl yet she simply said something back, stone-faced.

"So, you really are a Parselmouth" Zabini's words were full of awe.

"I guess? Is that a big deal?" Willow's eyebrows knitted together with her question. She didn't see it as such a big deal.

"A big deal? Of course, it-"

Zabini was interrupted in mid-sentence by the compartment door slamming open. In the doorway stood Draco, red faced and angry. He stormed in and fell dramatically into the seat beside Willow, oblivious to the wonder that his friends had just witnessed.

"Who does Potter think he his? He hangs out with a Weasley yet thinks that he's better than everyone else. I mean really, a Weasley..."

Willow picked her book up again and continued to read, only this time she read silently as Draco complained about her twin. It was funny really, she had never heard anyone talk about Harry like that, mostly because they were too scared of Dudley and the rest of the gang. Maybe they'll grow closer since he's out from under the influence of the Dursleys.

_One can only hope, _She thought to herself.

A comfortable silence blanketed the space after Draco finished his rant. Nott and Zabini kept looking at Willow as she read, and Draco was looking at all three of them in confusion. Their peace was soon disturbed when the door slammed open again but this time a girl with frizzy hair stood in the doorway. She looked at Draco and spoke to him ignoring the rest of the people in the compartment much to the irritation of Willow.

"You know that wasn't very nice, you don't want to get into a fight on the first day of school." Willow rolled her eyes. She was one of those students.

"You don't get to tell me what to do, you're just a mudblood." Willow looked over at Nott and mouthed the unfamiliar word that had left Draco's mouth

"Later," he mouthed back. She nodded and continued to witness the conversation go horribly. The girl flinched at the word, Willow guessed that it was that it was an insult, however she ignored it and pushed on.

"Well, I only came to tell you that the conductor said that we'll be there soon, so you should get your robes on." The girl stared at Willow and Willow stared back raising a single eyebrow, daring the girl with frizzy hair and buck teeth to even try to tell her what to do as well. The girl, Willow realized that she never got her name, looked away first, her eyes lingering on Sandor, and quickly made her leave. Willow sighed and closed her book again, this time putting it away and pulling out her her uniform tie, which was a weird grey color, and the robe she was supposed to put over the rest of her uniform.

"No matter how infuriating she seems, she's right, we needed to get ready." She set Sandor on top of Arya's cage, telling him that he'd have to stay there and that she would see him afterwards, and got ready.

The train slowly rolled to a stop and when the announcement was made that the first years were allowed to get off the train Malfoy and Zabini rushed out of the compartment, leaving behind an amused looking Nott.

"Are they always like that?"Willow asked as they waited for the horde of first years to pass. They wanted to avoid getting crushed in the stampede.

"For as long as I've known them. Yes. If they weren't I'd be worried." They both chuckled at that and Willow decided that this was a good time as any to ask about the Mudblood word.

When she asked, it sparked an entire blood purity conversation. Willow found it really easy to talk to Nott, anything he said was clearly and patiently explained, even if their topic was about blood purity. He even explained purebloods and half bloods as well, for context, he had said. In reality, he just seemed glad that someone was willing to have an in depth conversation with him about anything.

The flood of people finally died down some and, after kissing Sandor and Arya goodbye, she stepped out of the compartment with Nott by her side. They walked through the train this time talking about his life growing up in a wizard family, and soon she was stepping out of the train and taking her first steps as a student of Hogwarts

_This is it_, she thought to herself, _Hogwarts isn't ready_.

She'd soon realize just how right her thoughts were.


	7. The Sorting Ceremony

**Alright I'm back! As the semester is drawing to a close my professors are piling more and more work onto me. But I'm hoping during Thanksgiving Break I'll be able to catch up on my work and be able to write some more chapters for you guys. **

**Thus chapter is a little shorter than usual due the amount of paper that I've had to write, but I hope you enjoy!**

**Happy reading!**

* * *

Willow made sure to keep close to Nott as they followed the crowd of first years from the train to what looked like a marshy area. Hagrid was there waiting to direct the first years into the little rowboats that awaited them on a river.

Nott cleared his throat. "So how awful was it living with muggles? My father always said that they were of the filthy sort."

Willow faltered a bit. How was she supposed to answer that, there was a lot wrong that she found wrong with it and his question in general made her uncomfortable. She floundered when she tried to think of what to say.

"Say, do you know what house you'll be sorted into yet?" She asked a little too loudly.

Avoidance. That was her answer, Willow figured that if she just ignored those comments and questions until...who knew when. Nott gave her a weird look out of the corner of his eye, noticing how awkwardly she avoided the topic. He rolled with it, though he did so with significantly more grace than Willow.

"Well I hope I get put in Slytherin. My entire family was in Slytherin, it's a pureblood thing."

"Wanting to be in the same house as your family?" They made their way down a hill over to Hagrid who was directing the swarm of first years. Nott sighed, looking down at the ground as they walked towards the clump of students, he didn't look too thrilled to answer Willow's question.

"It's not wanting, it's more like… expecting to be in the same house. You know, because-"

"It's a pureblood thing, I get it. You purebloods are weird, though." Willow light elbowed him in his side as she teased him. He laughed a little and lightly pushed her back.

"I'll have you know that Muggles are just as weird." They continued to playfully argue back and forth until they reached Hagrid. Any intimidation factor that he had towering over the students was canceled out by his jolly personality and huge smile. His smile widened when he spotted Willow.

"Willow! Good to see yeh. You and yer friend can get into this boat here. I assume the train here was enjoyable?"

"It was, thanks Hagrid." She shot him a beaming smile as her and Nott climbed into the little rowboat, they were joined by Draco and Blaise. Willow greeted them warmly, laughing loudly when Draco tripped over the edge of his cloak trying to climb in. He blushed, embarrassed, but began to chuckle along with her when Nott and Blaise joined in.

Once all of the first years were in the boats, they began to move. Willow looked around to see if she could see what was causing them to move, like a motor, but there was nothing. It took her a minute to realize that they moved by magic. It was still a foreign concept to her and for it to be so prevalent in everything now was a shock.

"I read somewhere that you actually lived with...Muggles. What was that like?" Willow turned back to Draco and stared him down. She didn't answer Nott when he asked and, even though Draco's question was phrased differently, she wouldn't answer his either.

She answered his question with a question of her own on an entirely different topic, effectively changing the subject and taking the spotlight off of her. As they continued their ride in the boat she deflected questions about what living with Muggles was like. She noticed Nott narrowing his eyes suspiciously with each question that she deflected but thankfully he didn't say anything. The other two boys didn't notice that anything was amiss and Willow was grateful. She wasn't sure how she was going to worm her way out questioning if all three of them came at her. They went around a bend in the river, and after the bend was a sight that Willow had never seen before.

It was a castle. A huge castle to be exact. All of them were distracted when they saw it coming into view. Willow leaned over towards Nott, her eyes still on the castle.

"Is that…?"

"Hogwarts? Yes it is, Welcome to the Hogwarts castle." Willow looked at the castle in awe. She knew Hogwarts was going to be big and impressive, but she didn't know it was going to be a castle. She looked around and was pleased to see that everyone was just as awed as she was. Even the purebloods. The closer they got to Hogwarts, the more magnificent it became. With its many towers it looked more like a fairytale castle than a school building.

Once their ride was over they were led around to a large oak door at what seemed like the front of the castle. Now that she was closer to the school she noticed that the structure was quite scary-looking. Maybe it was the sheer size of the towers and battlements that intimidated her or maybe it was the fact that it was put together in a way to where it looked like it could fall over at any minute. In fact, Willow realized that the only way for the castle to stay standing and keep its grandeur was with magic.

They were lead through the doors and into an entrance hall. The hall was so big that it could've fit the entire Dursley house inside of it with room to spare, the students continued to follow Hagrid until they were led to a separate room. The first years crowded into the room, closer than they would've liked. Standing before them was a bespectacled, stern-looking, witch wearing emerald green robes. She wasn't near as tall or big as Hagrid was but her presence and the way she held herself demanded the attention of everyone in the room.

"Good evening students, I'm Professor McGonagall, deputy headmistress here at Hogwarts. The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting Ceremony will begin in a few short moments so I suggest you smarten yourselves up."

Professor McGonagall looked pointedly at Harry's mussed hair, a ginger boy's smudged nosed, and landed on the boy who had his cloak buttoned over his ear. She proceeded to put them in order and Willow ended up behind Harry. They were told to wait there, and she had left. As soon as she did, Harry turned to Willow and started talking about the train ride here and about some guy named Ron.

"Ron's brothers are twins you know, and they ended up in the same house. Do you think we'll be placed in the same house too?"

"I'm not sure, it all depends on the sorting ceremony." Harry nodded his head and told her what he knew of the houses, most of which she already knew from Theodore Nott.

"I hope I get sorted into Gryffindor, Willow. I can't imagine being a Slytherin, especially since that git Draco will probably be in there. Have you met him yet? Ron tells me that not a witch or wizard that went bad wasn't in Slytherin."

Willow looked at him astounded, surely aren't children of the devil like he was making them seem. She decided to hum vaguely instead of answering. She was saved from further conversation when Professor McGonagall stepped back into the foyer. She motioned for them to follow her and led them into what she said was the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was a huge room with tons of tables where the older students were separated by their houses. Willow had never seen anything so beautiful. The hall was lit with a thousand candles. Looking up above the candles she noticed the ceiling seemed to be charmed to look like the night sky. The teachers were sitting at a table in the front of the room, and in front of them, on a little stool, was an old hat. Harry turned to Willow a gave her a confused look. She just shrugged in response. She assumed that the hat would sort them, though she had no idea how. Or she didn't until it seemed to twitch and a rip appeared at the brim, almost like a mouth and began to sing.

_"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffis are true And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_if you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folk use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

Once the singing was done, Professor McGonagall drew out a roll of paper and started calling the names.

"Hannah Abbott" The girl walked up and sat on the stool that the hat had been on previously. The sorting hat was placed on her head and, after a moment, yelled out Hufflepuff.

Harry turned toward Willow, relief clear on his face.

"I'm glad it's only the hat. Ron told me that we might've had to fight a troll" Willow rolled her eyes at her brother.

"Clearly your friend has no sense then. We're eleven, how are we supposed to know how to fight a troll?" Harry had nothing to say to that.

"Terry Boot" This boy was sorted into Ravenclaw, so was a young girl named Grace Dalton, who looked particularly terrified. They continued on in this fashion. The girl that interrupted that burst into Willow's train car, Hermione Granger was her name, was sorted into Gryffindor. The girl after her, Daphne Greengrass was sorted into Slytherin, as were Malfoy and Nott. Willow clapped particularly hard for them when they were sorted.

"Harry Potter" The hall fell silent before whispers of his name floated around the room. He turned and looked at Willow, nervous. She nodded for him to go up there and told him good luck, grabbing his hand and squeezing it in a rare act of comfort. He sat on the stool and the hat was placed on his head. It was a couple of tense moments before the hat bellowed out

"GRYFFINDOR!" The Gryffindor table roared with hollers and applause. Willow smiled a little, he would do well there.

"Willow Potter" The whispers started up for her too, but she noticed that they were different. They were asking who she was, if she was related to Harry. Willow sat on the stool and tried to ignore them.

_It doesn't matter, _she thought, _I'll show them_.

"Oh, will you?" The sorting hat made some sort of humming noise and continued to talk.

"You know, you and your brother are very different. Even your magic is fundamentally different. Yes, you'll do very well in SLYTHERIN." The hat said the last part out loud and the silence was so deafening that you could hear a pin drop. The Slytherins were the first to recover, clapping loudly, the look of pleasure at getting a Potter in their house clear on their faces. Nott and Malfoy were clapping the loudest. The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were clapping politely and when she looked back at the Gryffindor table, they were still too shocked to do anything. Willow got down from the stool and made her way towards the Slytherin table. She took a seat between Nott and Malfoy, and the sorting continued. Harry's friend, Ron Weasley was sorted into Gryffindor and Zabini was sorted into Slytherin. With that the sorting ceremony was over. The headmaster, who introduced himself as Albus Dumbledore, welcomed the first years to Hogwarts. He was tall and thin and his silvery beard was so long that it could've been tucked into his belt.

"Before we begin our feast," he began, "We have some housekeeping to take care of. First off, the forbidden forest is still off limits to all students, and the corridor on the third floor is out of bounds unless someone wishes to die a painful death." She was taken aback.

_Was he serious?_ She looked around and was glad that everyone else looked confused too.

"Now a few words. Here they are: Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, and Tweak. Thank you!"

Willow was very concerned.

"Is he mad?" She asked no one in particular.

"Yes, he is." It was the boy across from her who spoke up, he must've been an older student, the only thing really memorable about him was is crooked teeth.

"He's a very brilliant wizard, but he tends to pick favorites and his old age has definitely got the better of him these days. Oh the food's here." She blinked a couple of times before deciding that, he too, was also crazy.

_Maybe if we're here long enough we'll all go crazy_, she thought to herself. She looked back down at the table, and it was covered with food ranging from chicken to pork to potatoes and salads. She stared at it for a while, not really knowing what to do or where to even start.

"You know you can actually eat the food." Nott joked, glancing at Willow out of the corner of his eye. She looked back at him with a lost look in her eye. She had never had this much food available to her before. The most food that she had gotten at the Dursely's were the bites that she had to sneak while cooking for the Dursleys, or the occasional can of soup that she had to sneak out of the kitchen. All of this was overwhelming to her. A spark of realization entered Nott's eyes and he turned back to his food.

"You should really try the chicken, it's quite nice. The potatoes are good as well." Willow decided that God had blessed her with Theodore Nott. He didn't say anything else and she took his advice and grabbed some of the chicken and potatoes. She paused and looked around at the table. The rest of the students, save for two boys she thought were Draco's friends, all had impeccable manners. Willow straightened her posture and began to eat, trying to remember all the manners that she had picked up on over the years, and some that she saw at the table. They ate in silence for a little bit before the boy across from her spoke up again.

"Snape should be coming by soon to give us our schedules."

"Who's Snape?"

"He's our head of house, teaches potions. He's the bat like bloke talking to Professor Quirrell." The boy motioned his head towards the head table and there, dressed in black with black, greasy hair and a beak like nose, was their head of house. She hummed in acknowledgement and went back to her food. Shortly after that Professor Snape did indeed give out their schedules. It seemed that all of the first year Slytherins had the same classes. That was perfectly fine with Willow. Even though it seemed that most of them didn't really want to interact with her due to the fact that she was a Potter. Willow promised herself that that would change. Once they finished their dinner a boy and a girl stood up.

"Alright first years," The girl was the first to speak, "I am Gemma Farley, and this is Evan Rosier. We are your prefects and will be showing you to your dorms." She turned and they both left the group of new students. Evan had to turn and yell over his shoulder.

"Keep up, we won't show you the way again, and you would hate to get lost in the dungeons. We've lost students before, and we don't care if we lose them again." That last bit caused everyone to pick up their pace. Willow kept her eyes open, searching for, and locating, path markers. She was decent at directions, but as she saw staircases move above her, she realized that Hogwarts was going to be a nightmare for people with no sense of direction.

They went lower and lower into the castle, and it began to get blissfully cooler. The group stopped when Evan and Gemma reached a wall with two stone snakes marking some sort of door. Emma turned to them.

"Alright, the girls' dormitories are to the right, and the boy's dormitories are to the left. The password changes every two weeks so check the noticeboard for the password changes. Salazar."

The bricks between the two stone snakes disappeared and everyone entered the Slytherin common room. Willow absolutely loved it. The common area had a couple of round tables, some couches, and high-backed chairs by a fireplace. The room was lit with a series of green lamps that tinted the room green. There was also a huge window that looked out under a lake. She guessed that if it were daytime, you would've been able to see fish and other aquatic life swimming there.

She walked up the stairs and went to the right. The first-year girls' dorms were at the end of the hall and when she looked in, two of the beds were already occupied. She made her way over to the bed that had her trunk in front of it. It was right next to the window, which also was under the lake. Deciding that she would organize her stuff and socialize with the girls in the dorm in the morning, she got ready for bed. She realized that she didn't have any pajamas so she got dressed in Petunia's old, over sized blouse and tried to get in bed without any of the girls noticing. She pulled back her sheets only to find Sandor curled up, sleeping.

"Sandor!" she hissed.

"Oi, I was sleeping here. Oh, Would you look at that, the princess finally arrived." She rolled her eyes and told him to move so she could get into her bed. She sat down on her bed and pulled Sandor onto her lap.

"What was wrong with the pet area they had?"

"It was gross, and cold, it's like no one owns a heater or anything."

"Well at least my bed is warm." She replied sarcastically

"You said it. Say, do you think I could sleep here, you know to keep myself warm?"

"Were you going to do it regardless if I allowed it or not?" Sandor nodded at that.

"Well then I suppose it's fine. Just don't wake me up in the middle of the night." Sandor hissed his agreement and a goodnight and slithered back under the covers. Willow sighed and laid down and proceeded to think about everything that happened. She rolled over and faced the window to watch the water crash against it in waves. Being magic had made her and her twin slightly closer but she knew being put in two rival houses was going to tear them apart again.

_I guess it'll be like normal then._ She refused to think about that anymore though, they had their first day of classes tomorrow and she was determined to leave her mark on Hogwarts. With that thought, she closed her eyes and the sound of the water lulled her to sleep.


	8. Parselmouths and Prophecies

**Look who's back! It's me. I actually really enjoyed going back and editing this chapter, hopefully it'll get me out of my writers block. This is where the story, I don't want to say picks up, but takes a different direction if you will. Feel free to ask any of your questions in your comments or PM me and I can answer them here in the little Author's Note section. **

**I've seen that in a couple of Fanfictions and I thought it was really neat, so I thought that I might try it out!**

**Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I do.**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

Willow awoke to a pressure on her chest. She cracked open an eye and saw her six-foot snake curled into a ball on her chest fast asleep. She grunted, out of breath and leveled the sleeping Sandor with a tired glare, he was heavy as hell. She shifted him as carefully as possible off of her and sat up. She was making the effort to stand up and get out of bed when she felt a pair of eyes. Looking over Willow saw the girl in the bed next to her, staring. She squirmed under the stare, very uncomfortable and wishing she could just leave the room.

"Can I help you?" It might not have been the nicest thing, but it was too early for all of this. The girl blinked her big blue eyes like she didn't even realize that she was staring.

"Sorry, it's just… Is that your snake?" Willow glanced down at Sandor who had begun to snore and ran her hand over his head smiling lightly.

"Yeah, I got him at the pet shop in Diagon Alley, Magical Menagerie. You're Daphne Greengrass, correct?" Daphne nodded her head as they both got out of bed. Willow was silently relieved that she remembered, she really wanted to make a good first impression.

"And I know you're Willow. You caused quite a stir you know." A look of glee entering Daphne's eyes. "I still can't get over the looks on those Gryffindor faces, plus I thought that Dumbledore was going to faint." Willow chuckled a little and some tension eased out of her shoulders as Daphne laughed with her.

"Well they should know that people are rarely as they seem, aren't they?" She agreed and their conversation faded into a comfortable silence as they got ready to go to breakfast. Willow was grateful that the dorm rooms in the Slytherin dungeons only put two people per room. There was just so much space and, now that she wasn't overwhelmed with the newness of Hogwarts, she could appreciate it. The girls headed down the stairs to the common room together and decided to walk to the Great Hall together as well. They weren't very far from the dungeons when they joined by the same boy as last night. He wormed his way between the two girls and walked in step with them.

_Ah, this is the crazy one,_ Willow remembered. Daphne said her good morning to him, and he inclined his head in acknowledgement, but he didn't seem particularly interested in her. He turned to Willow, a pompous sort of air about him.

"We weren't properly introduced last night. Marcus Flint." He held out his hand for Willow to shake and she took it, giving Daphne a look of 'what the hell is going on?' Daphne shrugged helplessly and trying hard not to laugh. Willow rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Marcus Flint.

"Well that certainly wasn't my fault, but I'm Willow Potter."

"I know, you and your brother are the talk of the school. I see you've made friends with Nott and Malfoy."

"Hmm somewhat." Willow knew that her and Nott would be pretty good friends eventually, but Malfoy? The world would have to see about that.

"That's good, their families are important, remind them to remember that, just in case." She was taken aback, confused, and a little uneasy and, judging by the look on Daphne's face, she noticed that her new friend was too.

"What do you mean, just in case?"

"Well there are only one or two teachers here that favor us over other houses, the majority of the teachers think we're below the other houses, and so if we're not treated as fairly it's not really a problem for them. Just remember, there are higher people and powers that are on your side." He opened the doors to the Great Hall and promptly split off from us to sit next to his friends. Daphne's eyes darted back from Marcus Flint's retreating form, to Willow, and then back to Marcus.

"Well that was weird."

"I agree, I'm telling you Daphne, he's not all there. However, if he is telling the truth then we'll need to be careful. We'll have to work harder than the other houses and I'm not sure how to feel about that." Willow took her place in between Draco and Nott like last night, the only difference being that Daphne sat across from her.

"Not sure how to feel about what?" At Draco's question Daphne launched into a play by play of what happened with Marcus and Willow shoveled food onto her plate, wanting a good breakfast before classes. Draco nodded his head slightly at Daphne's story, as if he had heard that specific conversation many times.

"That's about what my father said as well. I'm pretty sure the only one that's safe is Potter over here since her twin is in Gryffindor" To his credit, he only sounded slightly bitter.

His comment made Willow pause, her fork loaded with fruit halfway to her mouth. She set her fork down and looked over at the Gryffindor table where Harry was sitting with Ron. He was joking around with his fried without a care in the world, and she envied him for it.

"I don't think that's going to be the case," Willow said wryly.

Based on what she heard she wasn't going to get any slack. It wasn't fair, she thought that getting away from the Dursley's would solve this kind of favoritism issue. They valued Harry more than her, everyone was more important than her. He was more important than her, treated better than her. She was beaten while he was loved. It was. Not. Fair. She gripped onto her fork tighter as she glared daggers at her twin. The seed of bitterness that was always there woke from its hibernation and began to grow. Her magic pulsed at her anger, angry and unyielding.

"Are you all ready for charms?" Nott asked the question, suddenly changing the topic. He elbowed Willow as he did so, and everyone else nodded their heads. The jab of Nott's elbow was enough to pull her out of what ever hold her magic had over her. Coming back to the present was like trying to break through the rough waters of the ocean.

Almost impossible.

"Isn't that the only class we have today?" Daphne was rummaging through her bag, trying to find her time sheet.

"Yeah, we do, with the Ravenclaws I believe. Tomorrow though, we have two classes Transfiguration and Herbology with the Hufflepuffs." Willow took a deep breath, trying to fight down the bitter tone that was currently attempting to force its way out with every word.

She needed an escape.

"However, I'm going to go on and head to Charms, I want a good seat." Willow pushed her plate of untouched food away from her and stood up. She went to grab her bag when a voice surprised her.

"I'll go with you, I need to find my way around the castle anyway." It was Nott. She narrowed her eyes at him before swiftly turning away and began to head the Great Hall doors, letting Nott follow. They both remembered their manners and gave tense waves to their fellow first years. The rest of their friends waved goodbye to the pair of Slytherins oblivious to the turmoil, they were content to sit and eat for a couple more minutes.

As they exited the Hall, Nott turned his head towards Willow, unable to keep silent for long.

"Why did we leave so early?"

"Well I guess… I just really did not want to be late." She winced as she spoke the words, that was a shit lie and both of them knew it.

"So this wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you have had a pair of shitty Muggles as guardians. Or that Harry is getting everything while you get nothing, again. Well, his house is really, but its the principle of the matter." Her steps faltered as Nott spoke the words, she knew that he knew, she just didn't know that he'd bring it up so soon. Willow put on a mask of cool indifference in order to hide her inner battle.

"What's it to you, Nott?" She knew she was being borderline rude, but she couldn't find it in her to care. Thankfully though, he shrugged the comment off.

"Listen, I'm just saying that us Slytherins have to stick together. That's what my father said anyway, and I believe it." Willow huffed, seeing where this was going to go. "My point is, I have a feeling that you'll be apart of something big. And I'll be here to remind you not to stare at chicken." She looked at him, confused, before she realized that he was talking about last night. She laughed, an actual, full laugh, and lightly shoved him.

"Besides, you'll need me until people realize that just because you're a Potter doesn't make you a lesser Slytherin. Now if you were a mudblood..." even though there was joking tone in his voice, Willow still felt like she needed to defend them.

"If I was a mudblood I'd still be able to kick your ass! Just because you're a pure blood or the Boy-Who-Lived doesn't automatically make you better." Nott huffed in indignation at the first accusation but stayed silent with the rest of Willow's statement.

"Hey Potter," He finally broke the silence and looked at her. She sighed

"Yes Nott?"

"Could you just call me Theodore? Nott just sounds too formal, too much like my father." Willow looked at him in surprise but was quick to smile at him.

"I suppose, as long as you call me Willow. Potter makes me sound like a Gryffindor." She gave him a sideways glare before they both burst out laughing. He looked like he was going to ask something else but they had arrived at the Charms classroom. Like Willow had hoped, there were no students in the room yet. Thankfully for them the professor was already there, after a moment of debating, they chose seats in the front.

"Well, I've never seen two students willingly sit in the very first row." Their professor had stood up of his pile of books that were stacked on his chair and looked at them through bottle like glasses suspiciously. Like he was waiting for them to do something...evil maybe? Willow smiled brightly at him even though her eye twitched and her magic pulsed. Then it hit her, if Slytherins were going to be put at a disadvantage constantly she was going to have to lay on the charm starting with their charms professor.

"Well, the front is always the best place to be engaged in, what I assume would be, wonderful lectures." Theodore raised an eyebrow at the sound of her sugary sweet voice. Understanding lit up in his eyes when their professor, Professor Flitwick he told them, blushed at the compliment, and continued to talk to them about how he was glad to have two students willing to participate from the very beginning of class.

By this point students had started to fill in, the Ravenclaws were disgruntled that the pair had taken the front seats, giving Willow and Theodore a wide berth. Which meant that when the other Slytherins came in they would be around them too. Daphne and Draco sat behind them. They exchanged their hellos and turned to pay attention to Professor Flitwick as he started his lesson. The course turned out to be a pretty hands-on much to Willows's delight, which was probably due to the fact that the professor couldn't reach the board. Willow pulled out her wand for the first time since she boarded the Hogwarts train. She inspected the thorns as the professor went over how to cast the spell.

It seemed crazy to Willow to think that she was about to do her first bit of intentional magic with it, even though it was only levitating a feather. The was giddy with excitement, it was practically overflowing. Her magic pulsed again and the wand pulsed with it, almost like it was telling her that it was ready. Curious, Willow decided that she would ask about that later. She took a deep breath and concentrated on her feather.

"Wingardium Leviosa" She watched in delight at the feather immediately shot into the air and lazily danced about in the air, going where her wand directed.

"10 points to Slytherin! And Congratulations to Willow for being the first one to levitate her feather." She looked around and, sure enough, no one else's feather was up in the air yet, though Theodore's feather was starting to move around on the table. Willow ignored the jealous glares of the Ravenclaws as she smiled at Professor Flitwick. Maybe Marcus was wrong about this whole Slytherin vs the other houses. She didn't think it'll be anywhere near as bad as he said.

She was wrong.

When she woke up on Friday morning, Willow had already had it. Tuesday's transfiguration lesson was a disaster in Willow's eyes. Taught by Professor McGonagall, Willow had spent the entire class practically in shock when the professor refused to call on the Slytherin students unless they were the only ones to raise their hand. They didn't even share that class with the Gryffindors, who have her as their head of house. The first year Slytherins were with the Hufflepuffs who walked out of that class with far more points even though they answered fewer questions, after half an hour Willow even began to keep track. It only served to infuriate her more

She groggily put on her uniform in a less than stellar mood. Defense against the Dark arts on Wednesday morning was a joke to Willow and a big disappointment as well. She was really excited for his class but the man that taught it was _not _the man that she had spoken to in Diagon Alley. Professor Quirrell was a stuttering, frightened man who couldn't be understood enough to take good notes. Flying lessons that day was another spectacle entirely Willow recalled as she reached around Daphne to brush her teeth and comb through her hair. She refused to get too far off the ground the brooms didn't look all that safe and the idea of _flying_ on a _broom _still terrified her. She wasn't about to injured over a magical cleaning supply. Not to mention, they could be cursed and she didn't even want to give someone the chance to put her in that position. Especially now, since Harry and Draco went off on some chase and Slytherin was the only house to lose any points. The older Slytherins might be out for blood just because Willow was Harry's twin, and she was not going to take that chance.

Thursday morning at breakfast there were whispers and rumors that, due to Harry's actions at flying lessons, he was going to be Gryffindor's seeker. Willow was furious all day about it, he broke the rules with Draco but he got rewarded instead of punished. It wasn't fair. Why should he get special treatment? Willow remembered that there was no point in asking why, everyone already knew the answer. It was that lightning shaped scar. It seemed to glare at her every time she looked at it.

On that Thursday, not even a full week at Hogwarts, that seed of bitterness had bloomed its first flower

She attempted to set that all aside though and tried to focus today's classes. Today was their first potions lesson with their head of house. As the rest of the Slytherins and Willow went about the rest of their classes, the excitement was building up and by lunch they could hardly contain themselves.

"What do you think it'll be like?" Daphne asked their group.

"He's our head of house so he favors us, plus I heard he refuses to fail a Slytherin." Malfoy replied.

"I heard that Snape absolutely hates the Gryffindors and that should be absolutely amusing." And with Theodore's comment they launched into a debate on whether or not the Gryffindors would manage to have negative points at the end of class which lasted until it was time to leave.

Walking into the potions classroom was a dream come true for Willow. She sat with Theodore near the front and, much to her displeasure, so did Harry and his friends. One of them being that Hermione girl from the train and Ron.

Willow leaned over towards her partner for potions.

"Next class we'll come early, they're sitting in the best seat." He snorted at her comment, baring his teeth in a sneer at the trio when they turned to look at him.

"Hey Willow." She looked at Harry out of the corner of her eye and gave him a small smile and said hey back. He looked as if he was going to say something else when his friend got his attention and started up a conversation. With the Snape not in yet, she began to listen in, elbowing Theodore when it got really interesting.

"Did you read the paper recently? They've been talking about a robbery at Gringotts." Ron attempted to whisper.

"Really? I thought no one could break into it?" Willow rolled her eyes at Harry's question, anyone could break into a place if they tried hard enough.

"Well, someone did, on July 31 according to the papers. They attempted to retrieve something from vault 713 but it had been emptied" That really caught her interest, not only did they break in on the day that her and Harry had visited there, but Hagrid had visited that vault "on Dumbledore's orders". Before Harry could say in return Professor Snape stalked in, the sound of his swishing black robe proceeding him. It would've been funny had the man himself not been intimidating. He stood tall, glaring at everyone with cold, black eyes. He began to talk and immediately Willow was hooked.

"This is Potions class. Most of you will think that this is not magic as there is not much in the way of frivolous wand waving or silly incantations here in this class.. Potions is a subtle magic, that requires brains and not the magical equivalent of brawn. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few who possess the predisposition... I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death."

He began the role and paced around the front of the room, going down the list. He called Harry's name and paused in front of him.

"Harry Potter, our newest celebrity," He sneered. Willow flinched, judging by the tone of Snape's voice, she knew that this wouldn't be good, for Harry at least.

"The Boy-Who-Lived. Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry looked at Snape in confused silence and Willow was glad that she had re-read the potions textbook the night before. There was a movement in the room and she turned her head to see that Hermione was frantically waving her hand in the air. Willow huffed and rolled her eyes. Snape sighed at the silence and continued, ignoring Hermione's hand waving

"Since you couldn't answer that one, where would I find a bezoar? … Not that one either, hm. What's the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Harry ground his teeth together and spit out an "I don't know, sir."

"Well it seems like fame isn't everything, is it Potter?" Willow winced, at that comment as Snape turned away from Harry to face her with a calculating look, daring her to make eye contact.

"Well Ms. Potter, do you know the answer?"

She looked him in the eye as she answered, confident that each answer was correct.

"Draught of the Living Death, Goat's stomach, and they are the same plant which also goes by aconite, Professor" A sort of pleased and knowing gleam entered his eye and he nodded, his eyes leaving hers first.

"It seems as if you are far more capable than your brother, though that doesn't seem to be a very high bar. 30 points to Slytherin." A wave of quiet laughter ran through the Slytherins and though Willow didn't laugh, she felt a sort of pleasure knowing that for once Gryffindor wasn't at the advantage. The rest of the class went just fine and she found that she actually had an affinity for potions making. Much to the Slytherin's pleasure, by the end of class Harry and lost his house most of their points and Willow had gained the Slytherins another 30 points.

Dinner came and went and Willow practically collapsed onto one of the high backed armchairs in the common room. She looked around the room, noticing that it was mostly empty. Everyone was still at dinner. She pulled out _Magical Ties to the Earth _and began to read, at least until her scaly companion moved across the page that she was reading and raised his head up to look her in the eye.

"You're neglecting me," he said frankly. She blinked at him

"And what makes you think that?" He gave an annoyed hiss at that and raised his tail to point at her book. His blue and green scales shone even brighter under the green lights of the common room which made him seem all the more menacing, even though she knew he'd never hurt her.

"You haven't read to me in over a week. I'm feeling left out. Its destroying my soul." He pretended to faint and continued about how he couldn't go on much longer. They both laughed at his dramatics, though his laugh sounded more like a dying bounce house.

"Alright," She conceded, still laughing "if it's to save your soul." Willow sat up straighter to support the huge snake that had draped himself over her shoulders and began to read.

As she read to Sandor, she began to relax, the tension of the week melting away. Her magic pulsed through her veins, Sandor was the only witness to her change in eye color, a ring of silver forming around her irises enveloping the green until her eyes were all silver. Willow clearly hadn't noticed and Sandor decided to drop it.

Soon she was too engrossed in the book to notice that the Slytherins were coming into the common room. She looked up as someone cleared their throat. Her eyes dilating back to their regular Avada green color. Those eyes looked at Draco standing in front of her, wide eyed. Willow cleared her own throat before making the attempt to speak English. The language was always a struggle to pull back.

"Do you need something?"

"You're speaking a different language."

"What a very astute observation. Was that all?"

"No, you're speaking Parseltongue. How did you learn Parseltongue? When did you learn it? Why are you speaking it?" Willow sighed and looked around, his questions had attracted a few other Slytherins, Theodore and Zabini among them. They both gave her knowing looks and walked over and stood on either side of the chair. The former put a hand on the part of her shoulder that wasn't covered by snake. Willow felt oddly comforted by this and turned her focus back to the mass of Slytherins.

"Listen Draco, slow down, I only really figured out what the language was called recently. All I know is that I know how to speak it naturally, I never had to 'learn' anything, and I'm speaking it now because I'm reading to my snake. If you'll excuse me I'm going to go back to my reading."

Willow cleared her throat again switching back into Parseltongue and continued to read. Though this time she was infinitely more nervous and more aware of the eyes on her. She straightened her spine an impossible amount and pretended that she didn't notice them. To her surprise though, instead of leaving Theodore and Zabini sat down in front of her. She raised an eyebrow but kept reading, watching out of the corner of her eye as a few more of the Slytherins sat down.

They wanted to listen to her… read?

The older Slytherins filtered in from dinner and paused as they saw the growing circle in the common room and sat down as well once they figured out what was happening. Willow knew they didn't understand anything that she was saying, but they still seemed entranced. Whether if was by the language or by her, she couldn't tell. It was still a powerful feeling.

An entrancing feeling.

They barely knew her or her name, and yet here they were. It was at this point that there was a shift in Willow, the Dursleys no longer mattered, the past no longer mattered, to her this was the start of a new era.

In fact, unknown to everyone, least of all to the two key players, this was the start of a prophecy, _the_ prophecy that would change everything.

Whether they liked it or not.


	9. All Hallows Eve

**As the semester winds down I'm finding it easier to find the time to write. Not to mention the overall lack of stress has me feeling a lot better health wise! **

**Writing Willow has also given me inspiration to write a second fan fiction, which I'm super excited about the first chapter should be coming out around the first of the year? I'm not quite sure yet. **

**But anyway, on with the chapter!**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

_Green eyes met red. In the background was the voice of a woman, her yelled words becoming muddled as the two sets of eyes stared at each other. Pulling each other into their depths. The man with red eyes waved a hand and the woman was silenced forever with a jet of light not very different from the color of the eyes he was still staring at. Those green eyes darted to the woman who was lying motionless, dead, before coming back to the red eyed man. They widened as they took in the man's grey pallor and lack of nose, his skin looking vaguely snakelike. The girl who owned those hypnotic green gasped in fear and tried to take a step back._

_This was no man. _

_The man seemed to sense her fear, and he grabbed her with long spindly fingers. He gripped her arms tightly, but never for a moment did it actually hurt. The act was almost too much for the green eyed girl. She realized that he had just… killed someone right in front of her without batting an eye, and yet here he was, being gentle with her._

_He should've killed her too. _

"_Don't be afraid. You're a Slytherin, you're better than that." His face was impassive but his voice had a softness to it. Confused, the girl made no move when he stepped closer._

"_Who are you?" green eyes stared at him accusingly. She was startled at the sound of her voice. This wasn't the voice that she remembered having. No, it sounded… older. Tired. _

_He smiled and rubbed his face, as if performing some sort of parlor trick. Grey skin sloughed away and left behind was a pale complexion paired with handsome features and a head full of dark hair. The only similarity between the man standing in front of her and the one before were the red eyes. The girl smiled and he ran his hand, which had changed to match his face as well, through her hair. It was predatory in nature a sign of ownership, yet gentle. A juxtaposition in its own right. His hand left her hair and came to rest lightly on her cheek. Her heart pounded at the feel of his touch, and a warm feeling settled in her soul. That warm feeling shone through her eyes and made the beautiful red eyed man smile down at her in a way that she wasn't familiar with, but his eyes reflected the same feeling that she felt. _

_Eyes were windows sometimes._

"_Tom, what are you doing here?" she breathed, recognizing him instantly, though she wasn't sure from where. His gaze pierced through her soul as he spoke._

"_I am the Dark Lord, your king, and I'm here to tell you that you will be my queen." Tom turned, disappearing as soon as he spoke the words. _

_The girl finally got a good look at the room now that she didn't have the distraction of Tom. There were two cribs one with a little girl and the other was occupied with a little boy. She walked up to the crib that held the little girl and peered in. The child looked back curiously. _

_When green eyes met green eyes, the scene changed and she was in the little girl's crib looking up at an old man with eyes of blue steel. He pointed his wand at her and green light flashed towards her eyes and she fell._

Willow woke up with a gasp, her bright green eyes flying open. Sitting up sharply she looked around frantically, ignoring the annoyed hiss from Sandor as he fell from his usual spot on her chest to the bed. As her eyes adjust to the darkness she saw that Daphne was, thankfully, still fast asleep, and there was no old man, grey monster, or Tom. The last one she was kind of disappointed about.

She should've been reassured, but her heart was racing, going into full panic mode. Breathing techniques were no use, because no matter what she did, her heart wouldn't calm down. She replayed the dream over and over, the panic threatening to reach up and strangle her, before giving up and dragging herself to the bathroom.

Tom. Who was he? His eyes sparked a familiarity within her, but she couldn't place it. And calling himself the Dark Lord, his talk of kings and queens. She sighed, brushing her teeth an\d splashing ice cold water on her face in an attempt to shock herself out of the state that she was in and looked in the mirror.

The girl that stared back looked half dead and very frightened. She resigned herself to the fact that her day wouldn't get any better. She knew what today was. Halloween. Just the thought of it sent dread pulsing through her. Willow's hands gripped the sides of the sinks as she felt the dread take her hostage. She watched her reflection with wide-eyed horror as she felt her magic reacting to her dread. Her fear added fuel to her magic as it turned her eyes a blinding silver. Breaths were harder to come by for Willow as she took in her new eye color. Pure panic joined the mix of unsettling emotions and finally her magic escaped, lashing out like a whip toward the mirror, shattering the glass. She was finally able to move and dove out of the way of the rain of glass. She groaned, looking at the mirror shards on the floor.

Getting seven years of bad luck was a great way to start the day.

Willow hauled herself up off the floor and finished getting ready for the day. She grabbed her bag, kissed Sandor goodbye and headed out the door with a smile on her face to hide the turmoil inside. It wasn't until she was out of the dorms that she realized it was still too early to be out of bed, let alone in the hallways. She needed a place that she knew would be open the is early. After a moment of deliberation she decided to go to the library and do some reading. Willow had just started on the path when a hand pulled her into an alcove. She opened her mouth to scream when someone whispered about a professor rounding a corner. Sure enough, a couple seconds later came Professor Sinistra, her wand raised high. Once she passed she turned back to the figure, though she couldn't see them in the darkness of the alcove.

"Who are you?" Willow questioned in a voice slightly louder than a whisper, thanking whatever higher power there was that her voice sounded steady. A second voice cast Lumos softly and a light washed over them. The light revealed a pair of redheaded boys. Twins, she realized.

"We are Weasley-"

"and Weasley!" Both of them held out their hands for her to shake, smiles on their faces.

"Willow Potter," she said, shaking their hands, her posture relaxed ever so slightly. She knew them by reputation, everyone knew them by reputation, and she had a gut feeling that they wouldn't do anything. They looked at each other, at her, and then at each other again.

"So you're Harry's sister! It's nice to make your acquaintance. What's a pretty little snake like you doing here?" one of them asked jokingly.

She chuckled only mildly annoyed at being labelled as Harry's sister, "I could ask you the same question boys."

"You see Willow, we're making mischief. Isn't that right George?" Said Fred, or at least she assumed it was.

"That's right Fred." Her interest was peaked.

"What kind of mischief are we talking about here?" The Slytherins would always talk about the Twins' latest pranks at breakfast, though Willow had never seen the twins in the flesh before now. Their pranks though, were awe-inspiring, even if it was against members of their own house, not that she could really blame the boys, her housemates more than likely deserved it. They were not the nicest of people, and Willow included herself in that as well.

Fred looked at George and grinned "That is a surprise, unless-"

"You would like in on it." George finished. She grinned at them back, maybe this would be the distraction that she needed. It wasn't everyday that she was getting pulled into alcoves.

"I think you know that I would." Her eyes were alight with mischief as she looked at the Weasley twins.

"Alright then, meet us here tomorrow night right before curfew." George whispered to her, ruffling her hair.

She winked at them conspiratorially in response and left the alcove in better spirits than when she entered it, and forgot entirely the reason for her foul mood.

Well mostly.

Her trip to the library, which was postponed until her break before dinner, was a bust, she couldn't find any information about the Dark Lord or about Tom. She knew it wasn't _just_ a dream, she had seen those red eyes before. She knew that they were connected. She walked back to the Slytherin common room in defeat, hoping to at least catch her friends as they walked to dinner.

She entered the common room hoping to find her friends, but instead she found Marcus Flint and his entourage. Willow was halfway through turning around and trying to head to the Great Hall when Flint noticed her and called her name. She winced inwardly, not wanting another one of his crazy rants, and turned to face him. Her grip on the strap of her bag tightened when she realized that his little group of fifth and sixth year Slytherins were right behind him. Flint turned to look at what she was staring at made a sound of realization when he realized that it was them.

"For your protection." He told her. She blinked owlishly in response. "The Quidditch season can get pretty nasty on and off the pitch, so it's best if you and your friends go in groups."

She looked at the other Slytherins with a closer eye, now that she realized that she wasn't in immediate danger, and noticed that they were part of the older group that listened whenever she read to Sandor. Ever since that first night, it became a pattern that for at least an hour she read in Parseltongue in the common area while everyone gathered around to listen. The news of her skill hadn't gotten to the other houses thankfully, but it was a popular topic for the older Slytherins, specifically the pure blooded ones. In fact, Willow suspected that the older Slytherins were the reason the news of her gift hadn't reached anyone outside of Slytherin yet.

Occasionally she would hear a whispered "Dark Lord" or "Heir of Slytherin". Though what was more interesting was the almost hypnotic way that everyone sat and listened to her each night. She knew that they couldn't understand her, only Sandor could, but it never stopped then from listening. She'd never seen or experienced anything like that and made a note to ask Professor Quirrell about it later.

That train of thought made Willow pause. The Professor Quirrell that taught here wasn't the man that she met at Diagon Alley. That man was sure of himself and knowledgeable. This man, he couldn't even say the word 'defense' without sounding frightened. She sighed, it disappointed her, but there was nothing she could do. It just meant that she would just have to do research on her own.

A voice brought Willow out of her musings and she looked up to see that Flint and the others were waiting for her to join them. She hurried to catch up and they left the common room for the Great Hall. It was a very curious sight to see them walking in a formation to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast. Willow was in the middle of the group with an older Slytherin on either side of her and in front and behind. They looked tense, but they also had an indifferent sort of air about them. It was odd. She noticed that students in other houses were giving them strange looks, but she just stood straighter and fixed them with a cold stare until they turned away.

They got to the Great Hall and all thoughts of the strange behavior left her mind. She had never seen anything so beautifully decorated before. It astounded her that they were able to do this. Live bats were flying around floated Jack-o-lanterns. And the swirling orange ribbons danced across the sky. It was chaotic. It was beautiful.

"I love magic," She whispered to herself. It drew a curious look from Flint, but she ignored it and made her way to her side of the Slytherin table. Daphne, Zabini and Theodore were already seated and looked relieved when they saw her. As soon as she sat down her 'security detail' left to sit with their friends and she sighed in relief. The food appeared as Theodore began throwing questions at her.

"What was that whole entrance about? And why were all of those other Slytherins surrounding you?" Zabini, and Daphne, who were on either side of her, leaned in closer, curious. She took a sip of her pumpkin juice before giving an answer. She leaned away as a bat swooped down, its wings barely missing her face. Willow gave the bat a small piece of fruit as she thought about what to say, watching as it flew away satisfied.

"I'm not sure," She said slowly, bringing her attention back to her friends, "Flint introduced me to some of the older Slytherins, they talked about Quidditch and that was about it. But it's weird, they kept looking at me." She lowered her voice, to thwart any potential eavesdroppers.

"Flint has talked to me a few times, but other than the nightly reading, I've never interacted with the other Slytherins. The timing is too coincidental. You guys know what today is." They nodded, every Slytherin knew what today was. If fact, everyone in the school knew what today was, it had been published everywhere. In newspapers, textbooks, memoirs, you name it.

"It's all very weird. I feel like… Something's going to happen," she told them. A pug faced girl, Pansy Parkinson, scoffed.

"And how would you know that? Did your dead mommy tell you? Are you a seer as well as an orphan?" She cackled loudly and Willow raised an eyebrow. Pansy's laughter died down when she realized that no one was actually laughing with her.

"You're not going to make any friends if the first thing you're going to do is insult the parents of an orphan," Willow said, she felt anger course through her and she fought to keep it controlled, "However, I don't think even your reflection would be able to look at you long enough to be friends with you." She watched Pansy's face redden as Willow smirked behind her goblet. She knew she would feel bad about it later, but for now, she would revel in the look of Pansy's face.

Willow went to take another bite of her food when the air in the hall shifted. She glanced around to see if anyone noticed, but they were all still talking, oblivious. A light breeze seemed to travel stealthily across the Great Hall and seemed to whisper _danger_ into Willow's ear. Straightening up she set down her fork and looked around. Everyone seemed unconcerned but there was _something _here, something bad, she could feel it. Muttering something to Zabini about going to the library, Willow stood up and made her way out of the Great Hall, following whatever she was feeling. She was getting really annoyed by how many times her meals were interrupted.

The torches flickered as she walked through the halls, and the portraits were staring at her oddly, but only one dared to break the eerie silence that had settled in the halls of Hogwarts, asking her if she was lost. Willow shook her head, thanked him for trying to help, and went on her way, her unease growing with each step she took. She was just about to round a corner when she ran into a mass of person and swishing robes. Willow let out a yelp as she fell backwards and landed on the stone floor. Scowling she looked up to see that the person that she ran into was Professor Quirrell. His robes, normally an ashen color, though he was known to show up in blue or green, were black and didn't quite seem to fit his normal frightened demeanor. He reached out a hand towards her and she took it, embarrassed.

"I apologize professor, I wasn't watching where I was going." She looked around, the feeling she felt at the feast still hadn't gone away, she looked around, trying to find the direction of the feeling.

"It's q-quite alright, W-w-willow. Wh-where are you g-g-going?"

"I'm going to the library," that was not quite a lie, she was going to the library… after she found whatever was causing this feeling that she had.

Willow watched as his irises got that reddish hue and he raised an eyebrow and chuckled.

"I'd believe that…if you weren't headed the wrong way. Where are you really going?" She swallowed hard, curious and scared, this wasn't Professor Quirrell. In fact, his voice wasn't even the same, and yet, she had heard it somewhere before. His voice was smoother, lower than normal, and had a depth to it that came from somewhere unknown to her. It was clear that wasn't Professor Quirrell's voice, but it wasn't fully this stranger's voice either, though she vastly preferred this voice over Quirrell's and she didn't know why.

"Where'd your stutter go?" She deflected the question.

"You know where it went, Willow."

"Well then who are you?" She looked around, that feeling was getting worse, but it wasn't coming from Quirrell or whoever this was. Her attention was brought back when he smiled and answered her question.

"All in due time, Darling. I am surprised you managed to figure it out though, what gave it away?"

Willow smiled back, relaxing a small amount since he obviously wasn't the threat. "Well, there are the eyes, the lack of stutter, the change of posture, your personality changes, your voice sounds completely different just to name a few." The spark in his eyes grew brighter. Willow realized then that this was the man that she met in Diagon Alley.

"Well aren't you perceptive. You've impressed me."

"Congratulations to me I guess," Willow said wryly, "Though, that does even remotely tell me who you are.." She folded her arms. He laughed loudly and she blinked at him in surprise.

"I'll answer your question to an extent, but I'll let you know that I don't accept being talked to like that from anyone. Not even from you." His voice deepened and took on a dangerous tone. His red eyes flashed as he looked at her, and widened imperceptibly when fear made her eyes flash silver in return.

Willow took a deep breath in an attempt to steady her voice before she answered him. She opened her mouth to respond when she was cut off by a loud, booming noise. Startled, she glanced around before looking at this man.

He was beaming at her.

"Such wonderful music, isn't it? Now if you'll excuse me, Professor Quirrell has an announcement to make. Come see me after class and we'll talk more. Good-bye Willow." He turned, as if to leave. Panicked, she called out.

"Wait! If you're not Quirrell who are you?" He looked back and smiled at her, giving her chills to her bone.

"Call me Marvolo, Darling. Also, be a dear and actually go to the library. I heard there was a troll in the dungeons." He winked and continued on his way. She stared after him in shock, trying to process the conversation that she had just had. Her mind jumped from trolls, to Marvolo, to the fact that Professor Quirrell had two souls, or maybe minds. Her brain settled on the troll and she decided to heed Marvolo's warning and actually head to the library. Especially now that she had more research to do. Willow turned on her heel and started walking, ignoring the booms and crashes of the troll. She tried to ignore the feeling that had fully come about and gripped her. Willow knew the feeling was caused by the troll and she didn't want to seek it out. She reasoned with herself that levitating feather at a troll is not enough to go try to take a look at it.

She got as far as the girls bathroom when she saw it. The troll. A huge, towering mass of green. The ugly brother of the Hulk. It was going into the bathroom when it seemed to notice that something was near it.

That something was Willow.

It lifted hits head and sniffed the air. Willow took a deep breath and tried to stay as still as possible. She had read that predators could smell fear on their prey and, with a nose that big, he was bound to prove that old wives' tale true. She gulped and, while keeping eye contact with the troll, tried to inch her way past it.

It roared.

She froze and felt her heart leap into her throat. It roared again and came closer. She cringed back as flashbacks of Dursleys came rushing at her. When Uncle Vernon got angry he was like a feral animal. He would rush and scream at her, throwing her into things and leaving behind bruises and broken bones in his he went on those rampages against her, no one could calm him down. Which, Willow decided, was exactly what she was going to try to do with this troll.

"Nice troll," She said hesitantly. She smiled wanly, choosing to re-evaluate her plan to go to the library, when she realized that it would mean having to cross paths with the troll, and instead inched her way in the direction of the Slytherin dorms.

"Good troll, you don't want to eat me, I'm too small," she continued, her eyes flashed silver as she kept speaking softly. It paused its movements, unsure of what to do. She proceeded to slowly make her exit, and thankfully it didn't seem to notice.

"There we go, now I'm just going to go and you stay there until I'm gone." She continued to speak and pray that it would continue to stay there, calm, until she got far enough away. Once she got around the corner that was behind her and out of sight of the troll she ran. Blood pounded through her ears. The troll roared, but it didn't seem to be coming after her. She kept running, and passed the Great Hall.

Halfway there.

Out of the corner of my eye she saw Harry and Ron running towards the direction of the troll. She wished she could stop and warn them but blind panic had consumed her. Tears were streaming down her face. She kept running. She passed startled ghosts and surprised portraits., not even bothering to stop and try to explain.

Once she reached the Slytherin dungeon she finally paused to breathe. She had been lucky that no one had seen her run like a madwoman through the castle. Willow ducked into an alcove near the dungeon to make sure that she appeared some-what close to presentable before going entering the dorms. She wiped the tears off of her face, smoothed down her hair and took a deep breath to try to steady her voice. She stepped out of the alcove prayed that no one would be in the common room.

"Titianoba." The snakes coiled around the door slid apart and revealed the calming green lights of the common room.

Willow put on a thin mask of calm and held her head high as she walked in, just in case anyone was in there. She was glad that she did. As soon as she stepped through the doorway everyone looked up at her. Deciding to play it casual she sat down on the couch between Theodore and Zabini and leaned into the couch cushions, letting them practically swallow her in their comfort. She looked around at the stares she was getting.

"Hey." She said to the room.

Chaos ensued.


	10. Curiouser and Curiouser

**Wow wow wow, an actual story update! I've been having severe writer's block and trying to force myself to keep to a schedule was doing nothing for me. I've taken a break from writing altogether and have come back with a chapter that I hope you will enjoy. Without further ado here is this chapter and the next one has a lot of the curious defense professor. **

**Happy reading!**

* * *

It took an hour for Willow to calm everyone down and convince them that no, she wasn't injured, yes, she really did see the troll, and she didn't know why the troll left her alone. Flint looked at her with curiosity shining in his narrowed eyes, like he didn't believe her fully. He straightened from his position against the fireplace and cleared his throat, catching the attention of the entire room and standing tall over the seated first years.

"So you're telling me that you encountered it, tried to calm it, which somehow worked, and then you what? Just walked away?" Willow winced as she realized how unbelievable it sounded coming from him, but it was how it happened… more or less.

She got a quizzical look from her Theodore and Zabini, but thankfully they didn't say anything. They both knew that there was more to the story but knew not to push Willow on the topic.

At least, not in front of everybody. She knew that tomorrow would be a different story, however she couldn't even begin to prepare herself from that line of questioning, the feeling of pure terror and dread still fresh on her mind.

She finally nodded her head in affirmation after a beat or two of tense silence. Flint's eyes hardened and he looked like he was about to say something else, but was cut off by the common room door opening. Willow thanked the heavens that he was interrupted, she really didn't want to have to sit through another one of his lectures or spiels. At the sound of footsteps, the students turned their heads toward the interruption in interest and watched as Snape strode through the door. Willow studied him as he entered the room. He looked about as pale as usual and his face was drawn up into his normal sneer, but his black greasy hair was mussed and he was limping, favoring his right leg. Apparently that troll got more aggressive after she had left.

_Or maybe the troll was always that aggressive and you just got lucky. _Willow shuddered at that thought. Surviving just based on luck alone was going to get her nowhere, and if she wasn't so lucky… Well she wasn't going to think about that. She could just imagine the troll dancing on her grave right now.

"Alight everyone," it was Snape's voice that sent Willow back to present and away from the macabre thoughts of trolls and graves.

"The troll has been taken care of. However, thanks to Mister Potter, we now have to drag an unconscious troll from the girl's bathroom." She blinked in surprise at the news as sets of eyes turned to her practically in sync. She would've found it funny had she not been reeling from the news. Did he really?

_He couldn't have, no eleven year old would be crazy enough to fight a troll. _However, the longer she thought, the more likely it seemed.

_I'm going to kill him. _

"Miss Potter?" Willow snapped out of her thoughts when she heard her name. She really needed to get out of her head. She knew that it wouldn't do her any good if she had her head in the clouds all the time, especially now with the whole Professor Quirrell and Marvolo situation.

"I need to see you in my office. Follow me." Snape met her eyes briefly before he turned on his heel, his robes snapping behind him and he began to walk away. She scrambled to her feet and and followed him out after giving the room a mock salute and winking to her small group of friends.

The journey to Snape's office was agonizingly quiet. He was not a talker, and she was already struggling to keep up with his long strides and she did not want to try to talk through that as well. Willow was pretty certain that huffing and puffing through a conversation wouldn't end well for her, at least with Snape. They had stayed in the dungeon area and stopped at a wooden door, after a brief look around she realized that they were right next to the potions classroom. He unlocked the door and walked in, leaving the door wide open for her. Willow took a moment in the doorway to study the room. The room, just like the potions classroom had jars that were filled with a greenish yellow liquid that seemed to preserve eyes, organs, and other things that she didn't even want to know about. It even had two cauldrons bubbling with some sort of potion. That was all she could make out. The room itself was very dim and only seemed to accentuate Snape's pale complexion as he sat at his desk.

"Stop gawking and sit down Miss Potter." Snape gestured towards the two chairs across from his desk. Willow's eyes snapped back to her surly potions professor as she flushed, embarrassed at the fact that she was being this ridiculous.

"Of course sir, my apologies." Willow crossed the room and sat down. The chair, which was made of wood, and was surprisingly comfortable to sit in, however she would've rather been in her bed. She forced herself to relax slightly but remained attentive, it wouldn't do her any good to look guilty before the conversation had even begun.

"You wanted to speak to me professor?" Willow broke the silence first sounding only slightly intimidated by the professor sitting in front of her.

"Yes," Leaning forward, he folded his hands and looked her in the eye. His dark eyes seemed to bore into her soul for a moment or two before he sat back in his chair.

"Miss Potter, you are one of my… more capable students," he shuffled some things around on his desk, "however, I cannot even begin to fathom why you would run off when there was a troll on the loose. In fact the Headmaster seems to think that your disappearance from the Great Hall and the troll's appearance was not coincidental." Willows eyes widened at his admission, he has to know that she had nothing to do with the troll! She opened her mouth to voice her protests when Snape held his hand up.

"I, on the other hand, don't think you are even close to capable enough to get anywhere close to pulling this off in any capacity. So explain." She was glad that he didn't suspect her but the way that told her that… kind of hurt. It took her a moment to realize that he was right. She was only a first year and she certainly couldn't summon trolls. Willow shook off his comment and tried to think about how best to explain herself without sounding like a complete psycho.

"Well, you see sir," She fidgeted in her seat, green eyes darting from one corner of the room to the other nervously. Taking a deep breath she forced her eyes to look at Professor Snape while she tried to explain everything as clearly and concisely as possible. That was thrown out the window when she noticed that he seemed to be getting impatient, and she panicked on the inside.

"The wind told me!" Willow winced inwardly, that wasn't clear in any way shape or form, in fact it was just plain loud. She sounded crazy. Professor Snape raised a single eyebrow at her confession as if confirming her mental state.

"The…wind told you?" it seemed to physically pain him to say that sentence. Willow nodded, cleared her throat, and attempted to explain it again.

"It was the air." She shook her head, that wasn't it. She realized that the conversation really wasn't going well for her. She took a moment to collect her thoughts and tried again.

"There was something in the air, it was dangerous, it felt like danger. I'm not sure, it was all very confusing. I left the Hall to find out what it was and then I ran into Professor Quirrell." She said that last part very carefully, making sure that she said the professor's name, not the name of the man who's been inhabiting him. Snape's face continued to remain impassive, however there was a glint in his black eyes that held a hint of curiosity within them at the mention of the professor.

"Has this occurrence ever happened to you before?"

Willow thought back, trying to recall the last time she felt it, or if she had ever felt it all before.

"I'm not sure professor," she began hesitantly.

"I didn't even know I had magic until a few months ago, so there was no way for me to know. I'm not really even sure how it happened this time or how it happens at all. Besides, even if I did have this kind of experience before it was clearly much different than how it felt today."

Willow watched as Snape leaned back in his chair,

"Interesting. I think I might know what's going on. But that's a discussion for another time, in the meantime I'll do some more research." Snape's eyes darted to the door. Willow took that as her cue to leave. She stood up, bidding a good night to Snape and heading for the door. She was stopped however when he called out her name.

"Miss Potter," Willow, with her hand on the door handle, tuned her head towards Professor Snape.

"I suggest keeping your distance from Professor Quirrell in the meantime, it would definitely be in your best interest to do so." Snape turned back to the papers he had on his desk and began to cover them with red ink. Willow winced as she left, knowing her paper was probably in that stack.

During her walk back to the dorms, her eyes drifted from painting to painting as her mind was drawn back to Snape's final statement.

_Keep my distance from my Defense professor. How is that even possible. _ She continued to think about the comment, curious as to why Professor Snape would warn her against the twitchy teacher.

_Unless… _Willow's brain seemed to short-circuit and realization slowly dawned on her. He might know that something's off with Quirrell. Snape might not know exactly what she knew, but he's aware that something isn't right. If Snape was suspicious then she knew she couldn't 'keep her distance' now, she _needed_ to know what was going on.

That being said, the mere thought of trying to figure all of that out was exhausting. Especially whenever she tried to think of a reason why Marvolo took an interest in her. Most of the teachers and students here wanted to get to know her brother "the Boy Who Lived". Even more curious was Marvolo's choice to tell her this huge secret.

Willow entered the dorm as she theorized why she was worth spilling this huge secret. She got past the commons room as fast as she possibly could, ignoring all of the questions that were being thrown at her in favor of getting lost in her thoughts. She made it to her room and practically threw herself onto the bed. Plucking the book she was currently reading off the nightstand Willow read in Parseltongue as Sandor curled up on her chest. She continued to read even after he fell asleep until her world faded into nothingness, her dreams consisting of a pair of red eyes and a boy named Tom.

* * *

Willow woke more exhausted and confused than when she went to sleep. Her dreams were plagued by red eyes and flashes of green. And that boy Tom, there was something almost familiar about him, but she couldn't quite place it. She pushed Sandor off of her and sat up. Barely suppressing a pained groan she stood up and managed to make her way to the bathroom. Her entire body was sore and her head was pounding. Today was going to be a long day. Which reminded her… she needed to talk to Harry.

Harry was an idiot if he thought that he could get away with knocking a troll unconscious, and in the girls' bathroom no less. She dressed in her school robes and made her way to the bathroom to brush her teeth and put her hair in a braid as she made a mental checklist of what to grill her twin about. Once her morning routine was taken care of, she went down into the main common room to see if Draco and Theodore were ready to go. To her surprise, however, they were nowhere to be seen. Instead, Flint and another Slytherin, Miles Bletchley, had taken their place. She looked at them both in confusion as they stood from their chairs and turned towards her and all thoughts of confronting Harry flew out the window.

"Hello boys." Her tone was wary, she wasn't sure what to make of the scene that greeted her. "Have you seen Malfoy or Nott?"

"They went to breakfast already." Bletchley said. He was a good bit taller than her to the point where she almost had to crane her neck to look at his face.

"Speaking of breakfast, we should go if we want to get the chance to eat," Flint started walking towards the door. Bletchley motioned for Willow to go before him and he brought up the rear of their little trio, stopping short of forcing the Potter girl to follow his friend.

Willow was extremely suspicious and only grew more so as they left the common room. She slowed down to a stop not far from the entrance of the Slytherin Dungeon. The two boys took two more steps before they realized that she had paused. They turned to look at her and were met with a very skeptical gaze and a guarded stance. Willow stared at both of them before speaking.

"What are you guys doing?" Willow crossed her arms and continued to stare them down.

Bletchley looked confused and Willow watched as his eyes met Flint's. He looked back down to her.

" What do you mean?"

"I mean, this," She gestured wildly at the pair. "You barely speak to _any_ of the first or second years. Yet here you guys are... escorting me like guard dogs? And not just that, you and all of the older Slytherins practically accost me with every little thing every time I enter the Dorm. What am I supposed to think?"

Marcus Flint sighed. "You're right to be suspicious, everyone's been kind of laying it on thick. But I'll explain on our way to breakfast. I am starved. You must be too, you missed dinner."

Willow's stomach rumbled in agreement and she acquiesced. They began to walk down the marbled corridors again with Willow walking in the middle and the boys on either side of her. However the mention of breakfast didn't dissuade her from getting her answers.

"You were going to explain."

"Right, I was," Flint seemed to hesitate after that, in an attempt to gather his thoughts.

"There's a myth within the Slytherin families…" he trailed off and Bletchley continued, his eyes widening in recognition of what Marcus was hinting at.

"Oh, you mean the Heir of Slytherin! Yes, according to my father, who heard it from his father. There was an 'Heir of Slytherin' when my grandfather was in school. It was written a while back that as the Heir of Slytherin lives on, a new Heir will come into their own and they'll rule together… or something like that. Crazy right?" He laughed, but as Willow looked at Flint, she realized that he, and possibly the other Slytherins, didn't find it so crazy.

Flint huffed, a little more than flustered.

"There were certain characteristics that were passed down. But you'll have to ask the other students. Draco will probably know more, his grandfather was rumored to have known who the heir was."

"What does that have to do with me?" Willow was intrigued by the story they were spinning but wasn't exactly sure how it pertained to her.

"Well, the Heir is said to be a Parselmouth, and a Slytherin at that. Not to mention the timing is pretty perfect."

They approached the doors to the Great Hall but before they entered Willow turned to them.

"So, from what I understand, you think I'm the Slytherin Heir?" They nodded. "You do realize that I'm _eleven_."

"We realize that. Which is why we're doing all of this. You are eleven which is why you need to be taught things that Hogwarts isn't going to teach you, things you'll need to learn sooner rather than later." Flint finished his sentence by pushing open the Great Hall doors and ushered her inside.

Her thoughts were swirling in her mind and she made her way to her usual spot. She couldn't help but feel like Alice falling through the rabbit hole into a completely different world. She sat down and let herself take a quick glance at her Defense professor, watching as his eyes flashed red when the two of them made eye contact.

She sighed.

Curiouser and curiouser.


	11. Stranger Things Have Happened

**Two uploads in a month?! It's honestly a miracle. I should be finishing up Year One in a few more chapters** **chapters, but there's a lot of groundwork that still needs to be laid out, but that'll be done in the next two-ish chapters. After that the plot should move along fairly quickly. I'm still debating whether or not to add a summer chapter, but I'll cross that bridge later.**

**Anyways, Happy Reading!**

**Samantha**

* * *

Willow walked into DADA and sighed. Breakfast was hectic to say the least, especially since it was the second time the older Slytherins had escorted her to breakfast. The first time was considered a happenstance, as a one time thing for the twin of the Boy-Who-Lived. The second time was less forgiving in terms of it being brushed off as a coincidence. Unlike last time though, when her friends gave her questioning looks, she was able to mouth "later" knowing that now she knew the answer.

She practically tossed her bag onto the desk, sat down in her seat, and waited patiently for class to start. Willow half hoped that Marvolo would be the one to teach class. Sure he probably may have let the troll in, but at this point he would've been more interesting and helpful than the normal Professor Quirrell. Her mind drifted to Harry and she realized as she was waiting there with her head buried in her arms that she totally forgot to talk to her brother. She shrugged to herself and decided that she could talk to him later. She was lucky she supposed, the longer she thought about how she was going to talk to him, the more she realized that she needed to figure out a different way to approach him. She heard footsteps coming up behind her and recognized them as belonging to Theodore Nott as he cleared his throat and moved over to his seat beside her.

"So are you really going to tell us what happened or was that your attempt to sweep it under the rug." Willow peeked out from her arms as he sat down with a lot more grace than she had previously done.

Sighing, she sat up and leveled a look at Nott.

"That was my attempt to not gossip about the other Slytherins while they were at the table. Flint gave me an explanation about why everyone is acting the way they are, but it's so strange. I can't wrap my head around it." Her hands went up to rub at her temples. Constantly worrying over that was giving her a migraine.

Before she could say anything more, Professor Quirrell walked in along with the rest of the students. He was wringing his hands, there was something different about him. Willow paid attention to him carefully, he looked exhausted, worried, plus he was stuttering even more than usual during his normal class introduction.

After about half an hour of the Professor trying to give a lecture, he seemed to give up and instructed the class to read chapter 6 out of their book before sitting down behind his desk. It was silent for a while. Willow had already read her Defense book and decided to take out her book on blood magic and began to read.

"Ms. P-Potter p-please see m-me af-after class."

Willow looked up, confused, to see Professor Quirrell looking at her. She made eye contact and watched as his eyes flashed red briefly. Understanding swept through her and she nodded her head. She wouldn't be talking with Quirrell, no she'd talk with Marvolo.

"Of course Professor"

She could no longer concentrate on her book as she remembered her conversation with Marvolo and his penchant for calling her Darling. And the Troll.

Oh Merlin, the troll.

_She knew that he must've let the troll in, there was no other explanation. But now the question is why did he do it? What was the purpose? What was so important that he needed to risk the safety of everyone in the castle? _

Willow was pulled out of the sea of questions that she was drowning in by a movement that she noticed out of the corner of her eye. She watched as Nott slid a folded piece of parchment toward her. Willow pulled it closer to her and unfolded it.

_You have a lot of explaining to do._ She looked up at him and he raised his eyebrows at her. She rolled her green eyes and huffed writing a response before sliding it back to him.

_I have an explanation for breakfast, but I have no idea what's going on with this. _That was a straight up lie, but she couldn't just go out and say that Quirrell had a potentially dangerous second soul living inside of him. That would go over like a lead balloon.

_You know more than we do._

_I have no idea what you're talking about._ Nott read this and scoffed quietly.

_Yes you do._ Willow rolled her eyes, but he was right. She hesitated for a second or two before writing her response.

_Yes, but I can't disclose all of it. I'll explain what I can later. I promise. About breakfast and about this._

_You better, and please be careful._

Willow re-folded the note and put it in her book marking an interesting page about blood magic in respect to the earth. She and Nott returned to reading their respective materials until the end of class. Once class was over she stood up from her seat and turned to her friends. Blaise, Nott, and Malfoy seemed reluctant to leave her. She shooed them away with a small smile and a wink.

"I'll explain when we're all in the common room." They each gave words of confirmation and turned to leave. Nott hesitated again, but with a nod, a reassuring smile, and a promise to be careful from Willow, he turned to leave as well.

Once everyone had left the door closed behind them.

"Your friends seem to care about you." Willow turned to look at Professor Quirrell, no, it was clear by the lack of stutter and red eyes that she was talking to Marvolo. She looked over at him and chuckled softly before agreeing.

"They do, and it's still strange to me. Though now I have to figure out a way to explain the whole "Heir" business and this without telling them about your soul issue."

"Heir business?" Marvolo transfigured a chair across from his desk and gestured for her to sit down.

"Yeah, some of the older Slytherin seem convinced that I'm the new Heir of Slytherin, or something like that." She took a seat and watched as Marvolo's eyes flashed with interest.

He leaned forward. "Do you know why they say that?"

"I do, but that's not why you called me here is it?" There was no way she was going to tell him any of the reasons. She didn't even know why he was even bothering with her, and until Willow knew why, she was going to be very careful with what she told him. It was a gut feeling, almost instinctual, and living with the Dursleys definitely taught her to follow that instinct. Marvolo raised an eyebrow but seemed to ignore her comment.

"You're right. I told you we would speak more yesterday, didn't I? I noticed that you were reading one of the books that I recommended when we first met and I wanted to see how you were fairing with it." Willow brightened with that change of topic. She honestly loved the books that he had suggested to her. They were so intense and just plain different than all of her other textbooks that she got pulled in every time she opened one of them.

"The reading is going quite well actually, I have a pretty decent understanding of the material, and have been itching to get my hands on other books along the same lines." She asked him a few clarifying questions which Marvolo gladly answered, his eyes brightening in response to her enthusiasm. He was genuinely grateful that he chose her to teach instead of her brother.

Willow paused after she finished her questions, hesitant to ask her what was on her mind, for fear of Marvolo saying no, or outright laughing at her. She took a deep breath.

"Marvolo," she began, "Is there anyway that I could learn some of the spell work that the books mention?"

She watched as Marvolo got a particular gleam in his eye that she couldn't quite place, and watched as the gears seemed to turn in his head. He grinned at her and his red eyes seemed to grow brighter and suddenly someone else's face was overlaid on top of Professor Quirrell's. The eyes were still red in color but there was something deeper and brighter to them, their skin was pale, and the chestnut brown hair seemed to be meticulously styled. But the implications that followed this face were too great. It absolutely terrified her.

Willow leaned back in an effort to get away from the sudden onslaught that the vision, or whatever it was, brought that she ended up crashing backwards out of her chair and onto the hard stone floor.

That seemed to be enough to pull her out of that vision for when she scrambled back to her hands and knees she saw Marvolo back in Quirrell's body rushing over to her, his god awful purple robes frantically swirling about him, his red eyes shining with worry.

"Are you alright?"

Willow resisted the urge to cringe away from him and thought for a moment. Sure, she wasn't harmed, but was she really alright? She wasn't sure.

"I think I just saw you." She sensed his confusion and quickly continued before he could interject. "I know that you aren't the original soul for this body. But when you just now I think I saw you, your old body, or face really. You had brown hair and you were pale but your eyes were still red."

Marvolo looked startled, but impressed, or maybe interested, worried? Willow couldn't quite tell. He left her in favor of sitting at his desk.

"You do realize that you can't tell anyone about this. You're a smart girl and you can see that even though Quirrell doesn't seem to be a dangerous man, I am. Please don't give me a reason to prove just how dangerous I can be."

Willow righted the wooden chair and gingerly sat down, feeling his eyes follow her every move, still reeling from the whole experience.

"I won't." She paused, debating on whether or not she still wanted him to teach her. After a beat or two, she made up her mind.

She took a deep breath.

"Marvolo, I… I would still like for you to teach me." Willow folded her hands in her lap and nervously waited for his answer.

Marvolo sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"I suppose it would make sense for you to learn the magic that you are reading about. Very well I will teach you, however I will let you know that this won't be easy. I will send you an owl with our meeting times."

Willow took this as a dismissal and stood up to leave, saying goodbye and thank you to Marvolo.

"Goodbye Darling. Oh and one more thing." Willow paused and looked at him. "Be a dear a keep this under wraps, will you?"

He smiled dangerously and winked at her. She swallowed hard.

"Of course Marvolo." She gave him a small nod, and left the Defense classroom.

Marvolo watched as Willow exited his classroom and he felt a pressure against the back of his head. It was Quirrell signaling that he wanted his body back, but Marvolo wasn't ready to do that quite yet. He pushed that feeling away and pulled out his bag of personal items that Lucius Malfoy had managed to grab for him. He supposed it was nice to have some of his belongings even if he wasn't in his own body.

He would change that though, and soon. He hit a lucky break when he met Quirrell in Albania and convinced him to become a host and help him obtain a body. That stone, the Sorcerer's Stone. That would be the key to getting his own body, preferably the one he had before that fateful night. People were more willing to follow a face that was more attractive. People were shallow like that but he supposed it worked in his favor last time, and he knew it would this time as well.

He dug through his bag and pulled out a journal with a few pieces of loose parchment tucked carefully inside of it. Marvolo pulled those out, grateful that Quirrell couldn't see what was going on when he was in control. Those pieces of parchment were unfolded with reverence as he said an incantation that revealed the drawings on the page. There were three drawings, one per page, and each one had the same main subject.

Willow.

Marvolo didn't know it was Willow at first, he only recognized himself. These were old drawings, done by a Seer right after he graduated Hogwarts. He laughed the drawings off, believing that he was above such things that were drawn there, but he kept them anyway. They were beautiful. But looking at them now, he began to believe that there was some truth to them. Especially after he met Willow in Diagon Alley.

Marvolo looked at the first picture. It was of a smiling, wide eyed, 11 year old Willow getting handed a stack of books by a man in a turban. The names on the spines matching the names of the books that he gave her that day. Including the one that they had discussed today, _Properties of Wizarding Blood and their Application: a Look into Blood Magic_

The next picture showed her a couple of years older with a snake wrapped around her shoulders as she faced a group of masked death eaters and a hooded man, which he knew to be himself, with a bright smile. It was a curious picture, she didn't look to be putting on a fake smile to cover up fear. In fact, her eyes shined with amusement and her stance was relaxed as she looked at him.

The final picture however, was the most unbelievable. She was a year or two older than the previous picture but still a Hogwarts student judging by the uniform that she wore. She was sitting with him just outside of the shrieking shack, a picnic blanket laid out and a basket of food next to her. Her head was thrown back in laughter as the drawn version of him looked at her with a warmth in his eyes that he'd never shown to anyone but Nagini. And even then, this look seemed different than any look he had ever given his pet.

Marvolo carefully folded the pieces of parchment back up and tucked them away again. The last drawing was still quite impossible, but as he remembered the drawing that had already come to pass, he thought that maybe impossible was something that could happen.

Stranger things have happened.

It wasn't until after dinner that Willow and all of her friends were all able to gather in the Slytherin common room. At the moment they were seated at one of the rectangular tables that went mostly unused since everyone else preferred either the round tables or desks to study on. Willow found herself seated at the head of the table with Nott sitting to her right, Draco to her left and Blaise sitting next to him. She was exhausted, but she knew that this was coming sooner or later, and figured it was worth it to have her friends in the loop.

Well, mostly anyway.

"Okay, to start.." She launched into a retelling of the past couple of days, leaving out Marvolo and her suspicions about Professor Quirrell letting the troll in. She told them about the older Slytherins' thoughts about her being the Heir and their reasoning. She also told them a modified version of the lessons with Professor Quirrell. He would give her book on advanced topics, test her on the theory and then work on the practical aspects.

She finished her explanation and the table went silent for a while. She could tell that they didn't quite believe her explanation about Quirrell, but she hoped that everything else would cover for that.

"You know," Draco began, resting his head on his folded hands. "My father told me about the myth of the Heir when I was younger. I don't remember much, but I can owl him and ask him more about it."

Willow nodded her head and smiled at him, relieved.

"That would be lovely, thank you Draco."

The smile didn't last long though. She yawned and ran a hand over her face in an attempt to wake herself up. She sighed at the quizzical looks that her friends gave her.

"Look guys, something is going on. Something big. Huge actually, and I'm trying to figure it out. Harry knows something else as well. I need to find out what that is, and I'm going to. I just don't know how yet."

Willow leaned back in her chair and looked at her friends. Blaise, Draco, and Nott looked at each other before Nott seemed to make a decision and spoke up.

"You mean we."

Willow cut her eyes to Nott.

"We?"

Draco spoke up next, clearly in agreement with whatever Nott had decided.

"We are going to figure it out. We're your family now and we'll help you. We can do it together."

Nott and Blaise nodded in agreement and repeated the word as well. Willow smiled at all of them and sat up straighter, looking at each of them in the eye.

"Together"

Willow hid in an alcove as Professor Flitwick walked past her on his patrol. She watched him waddle past her hiding spot and waited until she knew that the coast was absolutely clear. She let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding before exiting the alcove and continuing to make her way down the corridor, her socked feet barely making any noise. She was glad that her sneaking skills were cultivated at the Dursleys. Years of sneaking food gave her the edge she needed for her excursion.

She just hoped she remembered where the meeting area was.

She turned another corner and came across the hiding place that the Weasley twins had pulled her into last time. This was it. It seemed a lot smaller than the last time she was here but Willow shrugged and stepped in anyway. She waited for the twins for about five minutes before she spotted their flaming red hair coming down the hallway. She decided to reverse the roles and, when they got close enough, pulled them both into the alcove.

"Hey!" Fred protested.

Willow smiled and lit her wand, illuminating her face and making her green eyes glow.

"Hello boys, I see the tables have turned." Willow wiggled her eyebrows jokingly at them and watched as they caught on and began to laugh.

"Not bad for a little firstie, isn't that right Fred?"

"You're quite right George!"

They both leaned against the opposite wall of the alcove, crossed their arms, and looked at her, their blue eyes twinkling in the wand light.

"So, you want to learn how to make mischief," Fred began, "and you want us-"

"To teach you? Hmmmmm, give us one moment," George continued.

Fred and George peeked out of the alcove to check if the coast was clear and stepped out into the corridor. Willow could hear their whispers, and could even hear her name a couple of times, but other than that it was just a conglomeration of the twins' hushed voices. Their words indiscernible. After another moment or two they came back, both of their faces unreadable. George took a deep breath.

"Well, Willow, after a long application process-" Fred took over.

"We'd like to welcome you to the-"

"Weasley School of Mischief and Wizardry" They said the last part together, grinned, and tipped invisible hats at Willow. She laughed at them as she mockingly bowed.

"I'm humbled and honored to be accepted into this very prestigious school."

"As you should be." George winked at her. "But alas, we must go, we'll send you an owl of everything that you will need, and the stuff that we will teach you." They said their goodbyes to her in unison and left the alcove, leaving Willow alone.

She left a couple of moments later and began to make her way back to her dorm. The silence of the castle gave her time to think about everything that happened today. She felt tears well up behind her eyes and she hid in an alcove to try to collect her thoughts and calm her emotions.

It didn't work.

Willow sunk to the ground and put her head between her knees. The conversations with Marvolo and then with her friends had taken its toll on her and her emotions were finally catching up to her.

Everything may have been coming together, but her emotions were suffering for it. She needed a way to handle it all or she was going to crumble under the weight.

And that was not an option.


End file.
